192 TRITON. 



SO easy a series of transitions to the caducibranchiate group, in 

 which all external trace of the branchial apparatus is lost, that 

 the artificial nature of such a division of the order is evident, 

 and some Naturalists have even hesitated whether to separate, 

 generically, the last of the perennibranchians from the species, 8ie- 

 boldtia gigantea, with which the description of the dental system in 

 the higher division of Batrachians is here commenced. As regards 

 the teeth, the difference between the great aquatic salamander of the 

 volcanic mountains of Japan and that of the Alleghanies is very 

 slight and merely specific ; the form, disposition and attachment of 

 the teeth is the same in Sieholdtia as in Menopoma ; they differ slightly 

 in relative size, those of the Japanese newt having the advantage in 

 this respect, with a somewhat deeper implantation of their anchylosed 

 base ; and the alveolar parapet of the intermaxillary bones is higher 

 and is slightly incurved. There are fourteen teeth in each intermax- 

 illary, seventy-two in each superior maxillary, and sixty-four teeth in 

 each vomer of the Sieholdtia gigantea. 



83. Andrias. — The disposition, form and attachment of the teeth 

 in the great fossil newt or salamander, {Andrias Scheuchzeri, Tschudi) , 

 are the same as in the menopome and Sieholdtia ; but they appear to 

 have been relatively smaller than in the latter genus, are less com- 

 pressed, and present more conspicuous basal grooves. (1) 



84. Triton. — All the caducibranchiate Batrachians with tails, as 

 the newts and land salamanders, have teeth on the inferior maxillary and 

 vomerine bones, as well as on the intermaxillaries and superior max- 

 illaries. In the common newts, as Tr. palustris, cristatus, and other 

 allied species of the old world, the teeth are confined to the bones above 

 mentioned ; they are equal, subcompressed, fine, sharp-pointed cones, 



(1) Cuvier being desirous of obtaining additional evidence of the truth of his opinion of the 

 real nature of the pretended Anthropolite of Scheuchzer, obtained permission, while at Harlaem, 

 to excavate the stone containing the celebrated fossil. " Nous avions place," he says, " devant 

 nous un dessin du squelette de la Salamandre, et ce ne fut pas sans une sorte de plaisir, qu'a 

 mesure que le ciseau enlevait un e'clat de pierre, nous voyions paraitre au jour quelqu'un des os 

 que ce dessin avait annonce d'avance. C'est ainsi que cette table de schiste, gravee et regravee 

 vingt fois depuis un siecle comme elle Test, PL 253, fig. 2, fut mise dans I'etat ou on la voit, 

 PI. 254, fig. 2. Et d'abord nous avons trouve autour de la rotondite, a droite et a gauche, une 

 double rangee de petites dents ; ce qui nous a fait voir que cette rotondite etait produite par les 

 machoires et non par la crane."— Ossemens Fossiles, Ed. 1837, torn, x, p. 372. M. Tschudi 



