Januaky 21, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



105 



Amphibians. — Professor S. W. "Williston," 

 of the University of Chicago, in his discussion 

 •of the genus Trimerorachis, from the Permian 

 of Tesas and Oklahoma, argues that this in- 

 teresting animal, which is in some respects 

 more fish-like than any other known amphib- 

 ian, represents a secondary adaptation to 

 aquatic habits, and that its ancestors were 

 more terrestrial, and therefore less pisciform 

 in structure and habits. Dr. Carl Wimanj^" 

 of TJpsala, has published an important memoir 

 on the abundant Stegocephalians of the Trias 

 of Spitzbergen, which, as remarked by 

 Broili, were probably marine animals. 



Dr. F. Broili,^^ of Munich, contributes an 

 interesting discussion of Tanystrophceus con- 

 spicuus von Meyer from the Muschelkalk of 

 Payreuth, an animal known from certain ex- 

 cessively elongate caudal vertebrae. The au- 

 thor adopts as most probable Cope's sagacious 

 determination of these strange vertebrae as rep- 

 resenting a small Theropodous dinosaur, an 

 opinion also adopted by Baron von Huene. 



Dr. E. L. Moodie^^ describes a remarkable 

 amphibian from the Pennsylvanian of Ohio 

 which combines early amphibian and reptilian 

 characters in the limbs. The same author, in 

 describing the scales of certain Carboniferous 

 amphibians^^ comments on their resemblances 

 to and differences from the scales of fishes. 

 In the Kansas University Science Bulletin 

 Dr. Moodie gives a list of the described spe- 

 cies of fossil amphibians, comprising more 

 than 300 entries. Again, in the September 

 number of the American Naturalist, the same 

 author contrasts the amphibians of the Coal 

 Measures with their supposed relatives among 

 fringe-finned ganoids, and shows that even at 

 that remote period the Amphibia and Cros- 

 sopterygii were structurally far removed from 

 each other; so that their common ancestors, if 

 any such existed, must be sought in some 

 much earlier period. 



»Jour. Geol, Vol. 23, pp. 246-255. 



10 Bull. Geol. Inst. Upsala, Vol. 13, 9 plates and 

 10 figs. 



11 Neues Jahrt. Mineral., Jahrg. 1915, Vol. 2. 



12 Amer. Jour. Sei., Vol. 29. 



13 Science, Maroli 26, 1915. 



Professor E. C. Case, of the University of 

 Michigan, contributes an important memoir 

 on the Permo-Carboniferous Eed Beds of 

 l^orth America and their Vertebrate Fauna.^* 

 He describes the geological structure and re- 

 lations of these beds, the character of the en- 

 vironment, and discusses the life habits and 

 appearance of many of the fossil amphibians 

 and reptiles found there, giving restorations 

 of a score of these strange creatures. 



Reptiles. — Dr. R. Broom, of London, has 

 prepared an illustrated catalogue of the Per- 

 mian Triassic and Jurassic reptiles of South 

 Africa.''^ This collection was made by Dr. 

 Broom in South Africa and purchased from 

 him by the American Museum of Natural BGs- 

 tory; it includes a large series of skulls and 

 partial skeletons, representing many genera 

 and families of the mammal-like reptiles 

 (Therapsida). The same author in his Croon- 

 ian lecture on the Origin of Mammals'" dis- 

 cusses the anatomical evidence for the deriva- 

 tion of the mammals from one or another of 

 the Therapsid group, especially the earlier 

 Cynodontia, which are the most mammal-like 

 of all the South African reptiles. 



D. M. S. Watson, of University College, 

 London, in the Proceedings of the Zoological , 

 Society of London, December, 1914, describes 

 and analyzes the skull structure of Bauria, 

 Microgomphodon, Arctops and other impor- 

 tant South African Permian types. These 

 researches are all in harmony with the now 

 widely held view that the mammals have arisen 

 from some of these mammal-like reptiles, but 

 the connecting links have not yet been dis- 

 covered. In another paper''' Watson describes 

 the anatomy of the Deinocephalia, one of the 

 most curious of the South African groups. 

 Some of these animals were of huge size, with 

 massive limbs and an arched back, like a gi- 

 gantic Echidna, but with a swollen, short- 

 beaked skull. 



1* Carnegie Inst. "Washington, Pub. No. 207. 

 15 Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., Vol. 25, Part 2. 

 T-ePhil. Trans. Moy. Soc. London, 1914, Vol. 

 206 B. 



IT Froc. Zool. Soc. London, September, 1914. 



