VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY IN 1914 635 



in this position, which manifestly represents the squamosal, and 

 the author is led to conclude that in true lizards the anterior 

 element corresponds with this bone and the posterior one with 

 the quadrato-jugal. It is added that Pleurosaurus may be 

 regarded as a member of an ancestral suborder of lizards, for 

 which the name Acrosauria may perhaps be used. 



In vol. iv. pi. 4 of the Annals of the Transvaal Museum, Dr. 

 E. C. N. van Hoepen has furnished a further contribution on the 

 fossil reptiles of the Karroo beds, dealing in this instance with 

 the lower jaw of the dicynodont Lystrosaurus {Ptyclwgnathus). 

 After describing the various elements which go to form 

 this compound jaw-bone, the author refers to a paper by 

 Mr. Watson published in the Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist, for December, 

 1912, in which he found that some of the features described as 

 distinctive of the lower jaw of Dicynodon do not accord with 

 his own interpretation of the structure of that of Lystrosaurus. 

 A re-examination of the lower jaws of both genera served, 

 however, to confirm the author's original diagnosis. 



Bare mention will suffice for the description by Mr. Watson 

 in vol. xiv. of the Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (pp. 95-7) of a new 

 South African species of Dicynodon ; and, likewise, in the Proc. 

 Zool. Soc. 1914 (pp. 1021-38), of various South African carni- 

 vorous anomodonts, or theraspids. Among these, special interest 

 attaches to a skull of Lycosuchus on account of its exhibiting 

 both paired prevomers and an azygous vomer, thereby serving 

 to confirm the opinion that the lacertian vomers do not represent 

 the mammalian vomer. 



In the pelycosaurian group Prof. E. C. Case has shown in the 

 February number of the American Naturalist for 1914 that the 

 curious " sail-backed " reptile, Edaphosaurus cruci/er, of which 

 a restoration is given, is perfectly distinct from the genus 

 Dimetrodon, with which it has been incorrectly identified. So 

 far, indeed, from the two being identical, Dimetrodon appears to 

 have been carnivorous, whereas Edaphosaurus probably subsisted 

 on molluscs or insects, with perhaps an occasional vegetable 

 meal. Unlike most of its contemporaries, Edaphosaurus had 

 a head small in proportion to the body ; while the dentition 

 consisted of a marginal series of sharp conical teeth, and of 

 crushing teeth on the palate, the latter opposed by a corre- 

 sponding series on the inner side of the lower jaw. 



In this place may be noticed Mr. Watson's description {Proc. 



