106 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIII. Nc io99 



Mr. Watson has also described^^ a peculiar 

 Permian South African reptile named by 

 Seeley Eunotosaurus africanus, which appears 

 to give the long-sought clue to the origin of 

 the Chelonia. The turtles and tortoises, it will 

 be remembered, are the only vertebrates in 

 which the pelvis and shoulder-girdle have been 

 drawn inward under the expanded and pro- 

 jecting ribs. In Eunotosaurus, the ribs are ex- 

 panded and of the same number as in the 

 Chelonia, while the back was armored with 

 dermal scutes of similar number and posi- 

 tion; but the shoulder-girdle and pelvis still 

 retain their primitive positions and the skull 

 also retained teeth, which are lost in the 

 Chelonia. 



In this connection must be recorded a work 

 by Professor Hugo Fuchs, of Strassburg, on 

 the structure and development of the skull of 

 Chelone imhricata, the first part of which, on 

 the cartilage skull and visceral arches, is a 

 quarto of 325 pages, 6 plates and 182 text fig- 

 ures (Stuttgart, 1915). Here are discussed 

 many far-reaching morphological questions 

 such as the derivation of the lateral wings of 

 the sphenoid bone and the origin of the mam- 

 malian auditory ossicles. 



The latter subject, after nearly a century of 

 discussion, has of late years received special 

 illumination from the investigations of Pro- 

 fessor Gaupp, of Freiburg, who has ably sup- 

 ported Reichert's view that the mammalian 

 incus has been derived from the reptilian quad- 

 rate, the malleus from the articiilar. Reichert's 

 theory has encountered certain objections 

 based upon supposed differences in the posi- 

 tion of the auditory ossicles with reference to 

 the hyoidean gill slit and to the chorda tym- 

 pani nerve in reptiles, birds and mammals. 

 Mr. E. S. Goodrich, of Merton College, Ox- 

 ford, has definitely cleared up this intricate 

 matter in a superb series of figiu-es showing the 

 developmental relations of the chorda tympani 

 in the different classes of vertebrates. His re- 

 sults lend very strong support to Reichert's 

 theory.^^ 



In a memoir entitled " Triassic Life of the 



IS Proc. Zool. Soc. London, December, 1914. 



19 Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Scie7xce, 

 1915. 



Connecticut Valley "^o Professor R. S. Lull, of 

 Tale University, gives a highly readable biolog- 

 ical and geological account of the Connecticut 

 Valley during the Triassic Period and of its 

 teeming inhabitants, especially the dinosaurs. 

 The later dinosaurs have been the subject of 

 important contributions by several American 

 authors whose papers may be noted as follows : 



Mr. C. W. Gilmore,2i of the TJ. S. IsTational 

 Museum, has given a very thorough and well 

 illustrated description of the osteology of Ste- 

 gosaurus based upon the skeleton and other 

 specimens in the U. S. ISTational Museum. 

 Briefer notices by the same author-^ are upon 

 the restoration of Stegosaurus and upon the 

 fore-limb of Allosaurus, the latter settling a 

 problem that had been a standing annoyance 

 and cause of confusion in dinosaur paleontol- 

 ogy of the last thirty years. 



Dr. W. J. Holland-^ has published some 

 preliminary results of his researches upon the 

 magnificent series of Sauropodous dinosaurs 

 secured in Utah by Mr. Earl Douglass for the 

 Carnegie Museum. He finds that the skull re- 

 ferred by Marsh to Brontosaurus is probably 

 viTongly collated, the true skull of this genus 

 being much nearer the Diplodocus type. The 

 tail of Brontosaurus he finds, like that of 

 Diplodocus, ends in a long slender whip-lash 

 and is at least ten feet longer than the pub- 

 lished reconstructions have indicated. 



Mr. Barnum Brown and Lawrence M. Lambe 

 have published a number of highly important 

 articles descriptive of the magnificent series 

 of dinosaur skulls and skeletons obtained from 

 the Cretaceous of Alberta by Mr. Brown for 

 the American Museum of Natural History and 

 by Mr. Sternberg for the Victoria Museum in 

 Ottawa, Canada. 



Dr. Edward Hennig,-* of the Berlin Mu- 



20 Bulletin No. 24, State Geol. and Nat. Hist. 

 Survey Connecticut. 



21 Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 89, December 31, 

 1914, p. 147. 



^^Froc. V. S. Nat. Mus., 1915, Vol. 49, pp. 

 355-356, pi. 52; ibid., pp. 501-513. 



23 Annals Carnegie Mus., Vol. IX., pp. 273-278. 



24 Sitzler. Ges. Naturf. Fr. Berlin, 1915, pp. 

 203-247. 



