A MOUNTED SKELETON OF PLATECARPUS 541 



It may be objected that the presence of an epiotic bone in the lizards is a far 

 too primitive character, but we are now quite certain that the lizards are an 

 extremely old group, probably dating from the Permian, and that they have not 

 a few primitive characters, etc. 



In a recent paper^ I have again expressed the opinion that the 

 squamosal of Baur, the supratemporal of Thyng, v, Huene, and others, 

 is in reahty the "epiotic," paroccipital plate, intercalare, tabulare, or 

 post-temporal (for these are some of the names the bone has received) 

 of the stegocephs. 



In his discussion of the elements of the mandible I do not think 

 that V. Huene does Baur justice. Baur it was who, for the first time, 

 correctly made out the structure of the reptilian mandible. His 

 mistake was in starting with the turtles as the basis of his revised 

 nomenclature, instead of the crocodile, to which the names of the 

 bones were originally given. This fact I tried to make clear in Science, 

 and in my paper on the plesiosaurs,^ where I introduced, for Baur's 

 angular, the name prearticular, now generally used. Kingsley, later, 

 overlooking this term (very naturally, for it was hidden away), 

 reached the same conclusion, but gave the name dermarticular for 

 the element in question, a term in some respects more appropriate 

 than mine, but, because of doubtful homologies, not to be unre- 

 servedly recommended. The prearticular occurs as an independent 

 bone in many, if not all dinosaurs, the chelonia, plesiosaurs, pely- 

 cosaurs, and probably all the old reptiles and stegocephs. 



1 American Journal of Anatomy, X, 82. 



2 Field Columbian Museum Publications, No. 73, p. 30. 



