376 
ORIGIN OF LIFE IN AMERICA 
the north’ and after Raving given rise to Blanus in southern 
Europe, fhe American ancestor reverted again to Amphisbaena 
when it re ac h e d Africa. Amphisbaena, moreover, is represented 
in Brazil by about a dozen species, some of which are very 
closely a^iod to those of Sierra Leone and Liberia in West 
Africa ^ we attribute such a range to a former sub-universal 
distribuF 011 ’ as Professor Pfeffer suggests, then practically 
all animph with a wide southern range must at some time or 
other ha ve passed through North America and Asia or Europe 
to reach their present habitats, and for such an assumption 
we have n0 palaeontological evidence. I think a case of this 
kind, as hh'* Blanford remarks, implies a former land con¬ 
nection between South America and Africa. We possess 
among t^ ie Amphisbaenidae an even more striking example of 
faunal relationship between these two continents. There are 
two spe c i es °t Anops, one of which (Anops kingi) ranges 
from B iaz h to Argentina, while the only other species (A. 
africani 13 ) confined to West Africa. 
Qf particular interest are the skinks (Scincidae), as I 
explain^ (P* 124) that this family must be of very great 
antiquity* Some of the genera certainly date back to Meso¬ 
zoic tiP 168 * Now, while skinks are abundant in North 
Americ a ’ the southern continent is almost entirely free 
from fb ese lizards. Those that live there, at any rate, 
belong to a genus distinct from the northern one. Southern 
Asia ai 1( l Africa are the headquarters of this large family. 
Only fhe single genus Mabuia has spread into South 
Americ a * Mabuia occurs principally in southern Asia, 
Madagd scar and Africa. A few species are known from 
the CdP 6 Verde islands on the west coast of Africa, 
while ( )nG (Mabuia punctata), very closely allied to them, 
has be en me t with on the island of Fernando de Noronha 
off thb eas t coast of South America and also in Guiana. 
Three species are found in Brazil. A couple have passed 
northw ar( t penetrating into Central America and one even 
to the Greater Antilles. We have clear evidence here of 
a forn ier ^ anc * connection between West Africa and South 
Ameri ca and °t hs having been utilised by the skink, Mabuia, 
in tra\ ers ^ n S the Atlantic in a westward direction. 
qq 1G worm-like amphibian Dermophis has not yet been 
