

AN Exchange of Pvblications is Requested. 



On the skull of a true Lizard {Paliguana Whitci) from the 

 Triassic beds of .South Africa.— By R. Broom, M.D., li.Sc, 

 C.M.Z.S. 



For many years there has been in the collection of the Albany 

 Museum a small reptilian skull, which had l)een sent by the late 

 ]\Ir. D. White from Donnybrook, between Tarkastad and Queens- 

 town. Through having originally been erroneously labelled 

 Procolophon minor, it has appai-ently escaped the observation of 

 recent students. 



When cai'efully examined, the specimen proves to be, not only 

 a new form, but one of exceptional interest. Hitherto very few 

 true lizards have been found further back than the Tertiary 

 deposits, and no undoubted Lacertilian has yet been found in 

 rocks earlier than the Jurassic, Lizard-like reptiles have indeed 

 been found in the Triassic rocks both of S. Africa and of Scotland, 

 as SaarostcrnuDi and Telerj^eton, but these are now generally 

 regarded as being Rhynchocephalians. Both genera, however, are 

 imperfectly known and it is possi1)le that Telorpeton at least is a 

 true Lacertilian. This was the opinion of Huxley, and in his 

 restoration of Telerpeton he figures the quadrate as having no 

 attachment with the jugal. In the figure of the underside of the 

 skull of Sauroaternuin Gn'esbachii givtnihy Owen in his catalogue 

 of S. African reptiles, the quadrate is shown to be fixed, but as 



