Miscellaneous. . 103 



Bornean Rht/nchosuchus Schegelii,SLS also in the form of the palato-nares. 

 From the combination of characters presented by these Crocodiles 

 (which the author regards as representing two species of Goniopholis) 

 and their geological age, the author proposes to place them in an 

 intermediate subgroup, which may be designated Metamesosuchia. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



On the Classification of the Stellerida. 

 By M. C. ViGuiER. 



In the various classifications of the group Stellerida, authors have 

 chiefly made use of characters furnished by the external skeleton 

 and the various accessory products, spines, granules, &c. which 

 cover it. It appears to me that, without neglecting the data fur- 

 nished by their examination, more precise characters may be derived 

 from the teeth themselves and the internal parts of the skeleton, 

 particularly the interbrachial arches and especially the piece which 

 supports the teeth and which I therefore name the odontophore. 

 The interbrachial arches have been figured in some genera, but the 

 odontophores have never attracted particular attention ; and, finally, 

 it was not known that in the ambulacra of some Stellerida there 

 are circlets of calcareous spicules analogous to those found in 

 Echinoida, although not presenting the same regularity. 



Such investigations cannot be conclusive unless they apply to a 

 great number of genera. M. Perrier placed at my service all the 

 disposable duplicates of the collection of the museum, and I have 

 also been able to study several types in the living state at M. 

 Lacaze-Dutliiers's laboratory of experimental zoology at Boscofi". I 

 have thus brought together thirty-seven species belonging to twenty- 

 seven genera distributed in the difi'erent families ; and the f oUowiug 

 are the results at which I have arrived. 



In the first place we recognize the great and profound separation 

 between the Asteriada3 on the one hand, and all the other families 

 of the group on the other. In all the Asteriadae the teeth are 

 absolutely truncated on the mouth-side, and repose by a flat surface 

 upon the odontophore, which is massive and presents on its lower 

 face a double inclined plane in relation to the teeth. The latter, 

 therefore, considering the extent of the surfaces in contact, can 

 have little or no movement. The types examined are Asterias 

 glaciuUs, Stichaster aurantiacus, Pycnopodia helianthoides, and 

 Heliaster helianthus, microbrachia, and Kubinyi. The form of the 

 teeth is the same in all cases, as also that of the odontophore in the 

 first three genera. It therefore does not appear to me possible to 

 separate the genus Pycnopodia from this family, as proposed by Mr. 

 Agassiz, and to approximate it to Solaster papposus, which difters 

 profoundly from it. In the genus Hdiaster the odontophore is cer- 



