THE EVOLUTION OF MAN 



Simultaneously with them, there lived certain 

 reptiles, small saurians which in many import- 

 ant respects looked like amphibians and on their 

 part represented a mixed group, the other end 

 of the bridge, so to say. Thanks to a happy co- 

 incidence a living grandchild of these amphibian 

 reptiles of the primitive world is still found at 

 this day in New Zealand. Its name is Hatteria 

 punctata. Its entire construction is such that it 

 represents a splendid illustration of the transition 

 form combining the newt and the present-day 

 lizard in an almost neutral shape. 



Finally, as a third count, we mention the fact 

 that genuine large reptiles, some of them very 

 grotesque in form, lived in those primitive days. 

 The strange thing about them is that they have 

 undeniable resemblances, especially in the struc- 

 ture of their teeth to mammals. These are the 

 so-called Theromorphoi. Their bones have been 

 found mainly in South Africa, in Cape Colony. 

 Their resemblance to mammals was so striking 

 that their first discoverers naturally thought they 

 had found typical transition forms from reptiles 

 to mammals, and there are still many experts 

 who share this view. Nevertheless, the genuine 

 reptile marks, for instance, the adjustment of the 

 lower jaw, typical of the saurians, are so unde- 



90 



