3o8 



REPTILIA 



Turtles lay white oval or rounded eggs in the sand, tamping the 

 earth down with the posterior portion of their shell. 



Nervous System. — The cerebral hemispheres and cerebellum are 

 large and the olfactory apparatus is well developed. The eyes are 

 small and hearing is acute. Tactile sense is well developed, the 

 animal being sensitive to raps on its shell. The skin of the ap- 

 pendages is especially sensitive. 



Super-Order 6. Archosauria. Rhyncocephalia. — Rhyncoce- 

 phalia (Gr. rhynchos, snout; and cephale, the head) are generalized 

 types, linking the Squamata, Crocodilia and Dinosauria. They 

 resemble the Lacertilia in form, but differ in having a fixed quadrate 

 bone. They are represented by one living relative, Sphenodon 

 ( Hatteria) . (See page 1,1^ i .) 



The New Zealand lizard, Sphenodon or Hatteria, has a well- 

 developed ^/«d'«/d'_>'^, sensitive to light. It lives in a burrow. There 

 are several fossil relatives from the Permian to the present, with 

 maximum development in the Triassic. 



Fig. 167, Gavial. (Courtesy of N. Y. Zool. Soc.) 



