(15) Dr ST, I. BOLKAY. 399 
that most of the species mentioned differs from those of living now 
in the more robust structure, that is to say in Ihe more robust 
skeleton. 
Such are for instance: Pelobates robustus By., Ophisaurus panno- 
nieus Konm., and Vipera Gedulyi By., all being judged after their 
skeletal remains two-or three-times as large as their direet deseendants 
living at present. 
I already mentioned of the Bufo vulgaris living in this epochs, 
that its fronto-parietal was much wider and more robust, than that of 
the recent bufo vulgaris. 
I refer in the same category Rana Mehelyi By. which was also 
a larger animal than its direct descendant Rana fusca hös.' 
But this is a general phseenomenon observed at all the species 
being not only as old as Pannonian, but at Pleistocenie species Loo. 
Such are: bufo vulgaris Laur., Bufo viridis Laun., Rana eseu- 
lenta L., Mana Mehelyi Bv., Anguwis fragilis L., Lacerla wiridis Laur., 
Tropidonotus natrix L., Tropidonotus tessellatus Laur. 
We may concelude, that allthe genera and species 
Tespectively, characterized at present by strongly 
bony skeletal parts, are more ancient and are more 
dying out, or rather they give place with their des- 
cendants to a generation characterized — following 
the line of phyletice evolution — by the continual 
degeneration of the skeleton. 
The Amphibians and KReptiles of to-day merely are the epigons 
of a class, flourishing in bvgone-ages. The robust Amphibians and 
Reptiles living under the tropies exhibit some contradietion against 
this theory, but tkis is only a superficial view, because these are also 
the descendants of giant ancestors — one could say; living fossils — 
so that the life under the Equator to-day is only a weak remembrance 
of the life long age disappeared during the various geological ages 
around the periarelic regions. 
The difference between the vertebrates of our temperale zones 
and those of the tropical zones is as follows: till the first mentioned 
has run through all the various stages of geological evolution, from 
the beginning of organic life — Ihe others stopped in the evolution 
and show the life disappeared on our regions in the Tertiary-periode. 
We look in vain for a phylogenetic eonnexion of our vertebrates 
1 Borkay, St.: On the pleistocenic predecessor of Rana fusca Rös. Mitt, a. d. 
Jahrb. d. k. ung. geolog. Keichsanst, Bd. XIX. Heit 3, p. 159. 
