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ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 
scientific institutions represented at these “diggings” and typical views of 
the camp life of the “bone hunters” were shown. 
The slides used in this lecture were a series prepared by Prof. E. H. 
Barbour, of the University of Nebraska, and it was through his courtesy 
that it was possible to present them. 
Both papers were listened to with much interest by an audience of twenty- 
five members and visitors. 
The Section then adjourned. 
Charles P. Bertcey, 
Secretary. 
SECTION OF BIOLOGY. 
February 8, 1909. 
Section met at 8:15 p. m., Vice-President Chapman presiding. 
The minutes of the last meeting of the Section were read and approved. 
The following programme was then offered: 
Bashford Dean, A New Example of Determinate Evolution. 
Raymond L. Ditmars, Some Interesting Reptiles. 
Roy C. Andrews, Field Observations on the Fin Whales of the 
• North Pacific. 
Summary of Papers. 
Professor Dean had shown in a previous paper that the egg-capsule of the 
chimseroids at the time of deposition is adapted with singular precision to the 
needs of the future embryo and had given reasons for the view that this 
adaptation was orthogenetic rather than selectional, in a legitimate sense. 
It was now shown that the egg-capsules of various chinneroids could be 
arranged in an orthogenetic series. In this series the head-and-body portion 
of the capsule becomes progressively shorter, the tail portion more slender, 
the lateral web disappears, the opening valve reduces to a smaller area and 
the respiratory pores of the tail end of the capsule to a longer one. This 
progressive series is accentuated by the recent discovery of an undetermined 
capsule from the North Atlantic (‘tChimcem ( 'Bothyalopex) mirabilis ) re¬ 
ceived by the speaker from Professor Jungersen, of Copenhagen. 
Mr. Ditmars exhibited a series of living lizards and serpents illustrating 
