470 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1898. 



UROPLATID.E. 



Geekonidce, part of most authors. 



Uroplatidw Boulenger, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. (5), XIV, 1884, p. 119. 



The Ibllowiug description is from Boulenger: 



Tongue moderately elongate, simply papillose, slightly nicked anteriorly. Denti- 

 tion strictly ideurodont; teeth numerous, small, obtusely conical, with long cylin- 

 drical shafts. No pterygoid teeth. Skull thin, much depressed. A rather strong 

 ligamentous postorbital arch; no fronto-squamosal arch; premaxillary single; nasal 

 single; frontal single; parietals two. Vertebric amphiccelian ; abdominal ribs. 

 Limbs well developed. Clavicles slender, not dilated proximally; interclavicle 

 minute. Skin of head free from skull; teguments soft, granular, and tubercular. 



This family contains a single genus, the aberrant Uroplates of Madagascar, which 

 combines with a Geckoid structure a peculiar sternal apparatus aud the union of 

 the nasal bones. 



This family is allied to the Geckonidae in its separate parietals, amphi- 

 ccelous vertcbrse, and reduced postorbital border and bar. The undi- 

 lated clavicles, however, justify Bouleuger's separation of it from that 

 family, and the fusion of the nasal bones emphasize the distinction. 

 It includes but one genus, which is characterized as follows: 

 Digits depressed, more or less webbed, with very small equal scales interiorly, the 



extremity strongly dilated, with two diverging series of lamelhs inferiorly ; all 



the digits clawed, the claw retractile in the anterior notch of the distal expansion. 



Body covered with small juxtaposed scales. Pupil vertical. No eyelids. Ear 



opening distinct. No prteanal nor femoral pores Uroplates Gray. 



This genus includes three species, which are confined to Madagascar. 

 THECOGLOSSA. 



T7teco</?ossrt Cope, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1864, p. 227; Bull. U. S. Nat. Mns., 



No. 32, 1887, p. 25. 

 Tliecoglossa pleurodontes Wagler, part, Nat. Syst. Amphib., 1830, p. 163. 



Petrous bone developed anterior to anterior semicircular canal, not 

 articulating with the edge of the parietal. Olfactory lobes under- 

 arched by frontal bone. Clavicles proximally simple. Vertebrje pro- 

 coelous. Interclavicle anchor-shaped. Tongue smooth; hemipenisnot 

 calyculate. 



But one family enters this superfamily, which is characterized as 

 follows: 

 Teeth attached by oblique anchylosis to jaws. Nasal bones coossified; supratem- 



poral foramen not roofed by dermoilssification. Premaxillary bones single. 



Varaxid.e. 



This family exists only in the tropical parts of the Old World. 



YARANID^. 



Lacertiens Cuvier, part, Regne Anim., II, 1817, p. 22. 

 Tupinambidw Gray, pnrt, Ann. Phil. (2), X, 1825, p. 199. 

 Ameivoidea Fitzingkr, part, Neue Classif. Rept., 1826, p. 24. 

 Varanidw Gray, Phil. Mag. (2), II, 1827, p. 54. 

 Thecoglosme pleurodontes Wagler, part, Syst. Amph., 1830, p. 163. 

 Monitores Wiegmann, Herp. Mex., 1834, p. 7. 



