276 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVII. No. 424. 



has proved short-lived in so many eases that 

 a thorough comparison of all parts of the skull 

 and skeleton seemed absolutely necessary, and 

 was undertaken by the writer with the valu- 

 able aid of Dr. J. Howard McGregor. It 

 was found that the grouping suggested by the 

 temporal arches is confirmed by a large num- 

 ber of characters unnoticed hitherto in this 

 connection. On December 29, 1902, a joint- 

 paper * was presented before the American 

 Association in Washington in which the Eep- 

 tiles were subdivided into two sub-classes as 

 follows : 



SUB-CLASS Diapsida. 

 I. e., Primarily with 



double or separated 



temporal arches. 

 RhyiicooephaUa : 



Progcmosauria. 



Pelyoosauria. 



Mesosauria, etc. 



SUB-CLASS Synapsida.^ 

 I. e., Primarily with 



single, or united tem- 

 poral arches. 

 Cotylosauria. 

 Anomodontia: 



Dicynodontia. 



Gynodontia. 



Gomphodontia. 



Theriodontia. 



Placodontia. 



Ichthyosauria. 



Phytosauria. 



Pterosauria. 



Plesiosauria. 



Lacertilia. 

 Grocodilia. 



Giving rise to the Giving rise to the 



Mammalia from 

 some unknown 

 member of the Ano- 

 modontia. 



Birds through some 

 unknown type tran- 

 sitional between 

 Proganosauria and 

 Dinosauria. 



In the ancestral Synapsida: (1) The roof 

 of the skull is solid (Cotylosauria), or there is 

 a single large supratemporal opening, the in- 

 fratemporal opening being rudimentary or 



* Read before the biological section of the New 

 York Academy of Sciences, February 9, 1903. 



t The names Protlierosauria (for Synapsida) 

 and Archosauria (for Diapsida) were used in this 

 communication. The former was abandoned be- 

 cause of its similarity of sound to Proterosauria 

 Seeley. The latter was abandoned because Cope 

 proposed Archosauria as a superorder to include 

 only two-arched forms, whereas Diapsida is given 

 sui-class rank and made to include the Ichthyo- 

 sauria, Phytosauria and Squamata. 



wanting; (2) the squamosal is large, coales- 

 cing with the prosquamosal and more or less 

 covering the quadrate; (3) the quadrate is 

 reduced and never movable; (4) the coracoid 

 and procoracoid are separate, or united by 

 suture; (5) the phalangeal formula is 

 2, 3, 3, 3, 3 or less than 2, 3, 4, 5, 3. 



In the ancestral Diapsida: (1) The roof of 

 the skull is open, with two temporal arches 

 and openings; (2) the squamosal is small, fre- 

 quently separate from the prosquamosal; (3) 

 the quadrate is large, free and secondarily 

 movable; (4) the coracoid and procoracoid are 

 early coalesced into a single bone; (5) the 

 phalangeal formula is 2, 3, 4, 5, 3-4. 



These are the most striking of a series of 

 characters which separate these groups. The 

 grounds for placing the orders of Reptiles as 

 they are in the above table will require fuller 

 statement elsewhere. 



HeneV F. Osborn. 



8GIENTIFIG NOTES AND NEWS. 



Dr. Wilhelm Wundt, the eminent psy- 

 chologist, has been elected an honorary mem- 

 ber of the Academy of Sciences of St. Peters- 

 burg. 



Plans have been inaugurated in Great 

 Britain to secure by subscription a portrait of 

 Lord Rayleigh. The treasurers are Sir An- 

 drew Noble, Sir Oliver Lodge and Professor 

 Arthur Schuster. 



Dr. a. E. Ortmann, of Princeton Univer- 

 sity, has accepted the position of curator in 

 invertebrate zoology in the Carnegie Museum, 

 Pittsburgh. 



M. Edmond Perrier has been appointed pro- 

 fessor of comparative anatomy and M. Pierre 

 Marcellin Boule, professor of paleontology in 

 the Paris Museum of Natural History. 



Dr. M. von Eudzki has been made director 

 of the observatory at Cracow in place of Pro- 

 fessor Karlinski, who has retired. 



Professor Forsyth, of Cambridge Univer- 

 sity, was elected president of the Mathematical 

 Association which held its annual meeting in 

 London, on Saturday, January 23. The ' 

 Association has 351 members. 



