CHONDROCRANIUM OF EUMECES 155 
5. Crista parotica and columella auris 
My study of these extraordinarily interesting and perplexing 
structures is by no means satisfying. I can, at least, record my 
observations, which are not fully in accord with those of Gaupp 
for Lacerta; my interpretations must be more or less tentative. 
The crista parotica (fig. 7, cr.par.) has already been mentioned 
as a thickened ridge extending along the posterior portion of the 
prominence of the lateral semicircular canal and terminating in 
a conspicuous spur. The position is as in Lacerta. In Emys 
Kunkel (12 b) locates the crista parotica much more posteriorly 
and ventrally, upon the ventral margin of the posterior ampullar 
prominence; its relation to the quadrate is, however, identical. 
An even more aberrant position is suggested by Bender (711), who 
describes the crista in Testudo as perforated by the fenestra vestib- 
uli. The projecting spur of cartilage makes a double bend, ex- 
tending first downward and forward, then upward and forward, and 
finally downward and forward again. The entire structure may 
be interpreted as composed of distal and proximal portions, 
practically parallel to one another, and united by a transverse 
connecting piece. That the proximal portion belongs to the 
crista, in the restricted sense, and that the distal portion (pr.par.) 
corresponds to the processus paroticus, as distinguished by 
Gaupp, cannot be questioned. In passing, attention should be 
called to a difference in the terminology of Gaupp and Versluys 
(03). The latter uses the name ‘processus paroticus’ as essen- 
tially synonymous with the ‘crista parotica’ of Gaupp; Gaupp’s 
‘processus paroticus’ he terms ‘intercalare’ or ‘processus dorsalis’ 
(i.e., of the columella auris). I follow the terminology of Gaupp. 
In as late a stage of Lacerta as that furnishing the basis of 
his paper, Gaupp describes the crista parotica and processus 
paroticus as distinct cartilages, although connected by a cell- 
rich tissue “das in Hiimatoxylin auch einen bliulichen Schimmer 
zeigt, aber durchaus kein hyaliner Knorpel ist.’’ Later this con- 
nection chondrifies. In stages 4, 5, and 6 of Eumeces the entire 
structure is a unit, with no differentiation of the cartilage recog- 
