1892.] 1«^^ [Cope. 



there 13 then, but one bone of the proxhnal row, which is flat and wider 

 than long. No ceutrale. and but two tarsalia, the third and fourtli, the 

 latter much the larger. The second metatarsal projects alongside oft. iii, 

 so as to approximate the tibiale ; its head is figured by Cuvier as a distinct^ 

 bone, but he does not describe it as such. In Chamicleon there is a 

 single proximal tarsal element, which is not flattened as in other lizards, 

 and this articulates with a single subglobular tarsale, from which the 

 metatarsals radiate.* The phalanges number, like those of the anterior 

 foot, 3-3-4-5-3, in ordinary Lacertilia, and 2-3-4-4-3 in Chamgeleonidte. 



Phyllodactylus Gray. 



In their osteology the species of this genus conform strictly to the 

 Gecconid type as already described. I have before me the skeleton of 

 P. tuberculosus, from which the following description is derived. The 

 premaxillary is single and has a long superior spine; inferiorly it has the 

 posterior border emarginate. Nasals elongate, distinct, emarginate poste- 

 riorly for the frontal. Frontal single, rather narrow, completely under- 

 arching olfactory lobes. Parietals distinct, wide, without pineal foramen, 

 lying rather closely on supraoccipital, sending backwards the parietoquad- 

 rate arch, which encloses a small foramen with the exoccipital. Supraoc- 

 cipital distinguished from exoccipital by suture. Prefrontal narrow, 

 forming the preorbital border to the middle above ; no lachrymal ; jugal 

 represented by a splint which extends from the prefrontal to the extremity 

 of the maxillary on the superior surface of the latter. Postfrontal a rather 

 wide V-shaped bone, its longest limb extending posteriorly more than half 

 way to the base of the parietoquadrate arch. No postorbital. Quadrate 

 with a single large, concave, external conch. Paroccipital in the usual 

 position, splint-like. 



Vomers in close contact throughout, with a common convex pos- 

 terior border ; an external longitudinal convexity of the inferior surface, 

 and a groove on each side of the median suture, which divides a keel. 

 Palatines short and wide, and with a longer vomerine than maxillary pro- 

 cess, and curving downwards below the level of the vomers. Nareal ori- 

 fices fissure-like except posteriorly and anteriorly, the external border 

 with a dentate process of the maxillary bone directed posteriorly near the 

 middle. Pterygoids much expanded anteriorly, forming with the ecto- 

 pterygoids and palatines a thin plate, which closes up the palatine fora- 

 men; contracting rather rapidly posteriorly to the subcylindric rod-like 

 portion. Epipterygoid extending from the pterygoid at the basipterygoid 

 process, and resting on the apex of the petrosal. Latter produced above 



* Cuvier (Ossemens Fossiles, ed. 1836, p. 98) describes a distinct tibiale and fibularc in 

 Chamgeleo, and figures them (Plate 245, Fig. 52). These are not represented by Boulcnger 

 (Proc. Z06I. Soc, London, 1891, p. 118). They are in fact not distinct tarsal ele- 

 ments, but are the epiphyses of the tibia and fibula such as exist also in Heloderma and 

 other genera. The tibiale and fibulare are fused iuto a single clement as in other 

 Lacertilia. 



