666 S. W. WILLISTON 



perhaps in the soft mud of the bottom. They are found almost 

 invariably coiled up, much after the manner of the modern Am- 

 phiuma. That they were burrowing in habit seems very proba- 

 ble because of the shape and structure of the skull, resembling 

 much those of the Amphisbaenia or Gymnophiona, but the very 

 loose sutures of the skull would hardly be adapted for burrowing 

 in firm earth, after the habits of the lizards and blind worms, 

 which have closely united skull bones. Not only this skull struc- 

 ture, but the mode of occurrence in immense numbers, closely 

 associated together, as reported by Dr. Williston, and closely 

 coiled, and especially the well ossified branchiae, seem to prove 

 that Lysorophus was a perennial water breather. 



University of Chicago, May 5, 1912. 



