4 6o SCIENCE PROGRESS 



however, considered worthy of ordinal rank. " Champsosaurits" 

 he writes, " cannot be considered ancestral to the Rhyncho- 

 cephalia proper, because it is already a long-nosed type derived 

 from a short-nosed form. It has lost the notochord. The ptery- 

 goids are highly specialised, compressed, and extended backwards 

 and forwards, completely obscuring the basisphenoid, while the 

 ethmoid is developed in front of the prevomers. Although similar 

 in many characters to Sphcnodon, this similarity emphasises 

 rather the very persistent primitive features of Sphenodon." 

 Why these admittedly specialised characters of Champsosanrus 

 necessarily entail ordinary separation from the Rhynchocephalia 

 is perhaps not very clear. There is a marked tendency among 

 some writers to an unnecessary multiplication of reptilian orders. 



As regards chelonians, the most important memoir is one by 

 Mr. G. R. Wieland, forming article y of the second volume of 

 the Memoirs of the Carnegie Museum, on the osteology of the huge 

 Niobrara Cretaceous turtle, Protostega gigas. In discussing the 

 affinities of this and allied turtles, the author concludes that 

 Protostega should be referred to the family Chelonidce ; and like- 

 wise that the family itself (instead of being widely sundered 

 therefrom) should be placed next to the Dermochelyidce, as re- 

 presented by the existing leathery turtle (Dermochelys) and the 

 extinct Eosphargis and Pscphophonts. Another paper on fossil 

 chelonians is one by Mr. O. P. Hay {Bull. Amer. Mus. vol. xxii. 

 art. 3), in which the new genus Xenochelys is proposed for a 

 tortoise from the Oligocene of Dakota referred to the family 

 Dermatemydidce, while Cope's Emys septaria of the Bridger 

 Eocene is raised to separate generic rank under the title of 

 Echmatemys, and part of a shell from the Pliocene of Peace 

 Creek is made the type of the new species Terrapene putnami. 

 In a third paper on chelonians, Mr. E. S. Riggs (Field 

 Columbian Museum, Geological Series, ii. No. 7) describes a 

 fossil tortoise from the Laramie Cretaceous of Montana, under 

 the name Basilemys sinuosus; the generic determination being 

 provisional. 



The year's literature on fossil snakes (in addition to the full 

 description of Gigantophis in Dr. Andrews's volume) appears to 

 comprise only a single memoir in the Beitr. Pal. Oester-Ung., in 

 which Dr. W. Janesch describes a specimen of Archveophis 

 proavus, a species from the Eocene of Monte Bolca, first named 

 in 1849. As the result of his investigations, the author concludes 



