232 S. W. WILLISTON, 



long as wide terminating in the cotylus, and perforated a little 

 above the lower extremity by a foramen. The double occipital 

 condyles are sessile, each with an oblique, flattened articular face 

 looking inward and backward. Just in front of the condyles ex- 

 teriorly there is a small foramen for the vagus, in front of which 

 there is a large vacuity for the ear opening, partially or imper- 

 fectly closed in front by this combined bone. Above, the bone 

 sends a triangular prolongation inward to the lower edge of the 

 supraoccipital, bordering the hind margin of the epiotic. The 

 large foramen magnum is thus bordered as in modern urodeles, 

 nearly completely, by the exoccipital. Rather closely applied 

 to this margin is a pair of triangular bones meeting roof-like in 

 the middle above and terminating below in an angle a little above 

 the condyles. They occupy the position of, and doubtless are the 

 so-called proatlas bones, displaced to form the " gular plates " 

 of Broili. The basioccipital bone I at first thought to be ossified, 

 but further examination convinces me that the broken surface 

 seen in the specimen between the condyles below is the broken 

 off anterior end of the atlas. A like condition was found by 

 Broili in his specimens, but he interpreted the structure as that 

 of a broken off occipital condyle. Furthermore, a little in front 

 of this fractured surface is seen the hind margin of a thin trans- 

 verse plate, the parasphenoids. 



In the palatal region are lying four pairs of branchial bones, 

 with no indications whatever of so-called gular plates. The posi- 

 tion and relations of these bones are well shown in the accompany 

 ing photograph (Fig. 3). The outer pair lying close to the inner 

 margins of the mandibles, have the posterior end thickened and 

 recurved, hook-like, to abut against or approach the hind side of 

 the quadrate. I would take them to be ceratobranchials save for 

 the fact that a pair of nearly square bones very clearly articulate 

 with the anterior ends, which must be ceratobranchials. To the 

 inner side, and progressively more posterior, lying symmetrically, 

 are three pairs of epibranchials the inner and hindmost represented 

 in the specimen only by their anterior ends, the posterior por- 

 tions broken off with the altas. The two outer pairs, at least, 

 are thickened and truncate at each end, and are partly hollowed 

 or cancellated, like all other bones of the skeleton. The first of 



