﻿4 



FOSSIL REPTILIA OF THE 



The smaller and more posterior orifice, resembling the e palato-naris ' of Crocodilm 

 and Gavialis, and which De Blainville and Bronn affirmed to be the true hinder 

 nostril in the Teleosaurs, Cuvier calls "le trou des arteres," and marks with the letter t in 

 pi. vii, torn. cit. 



The real nature of this foramen in the Teleosaurs is pointed out in my paper " On the 

 Eustachian Canals in Crocodiles," 1 and the accuracy of Cuvier's determination of the 

 ' palato-nares ' in the Teleosaur, is now accepted. 2 



In some Teleosaurians {Tel. temporalis, Bl., Pelayosaurus typus, Bronn) the ' palato- 

 naris/ instead of being broader than long, as in Tel. cadomensis, is narrower and is 

 produced forward into a point, on the same transverse parallel as the ptery go-maxillary 

 vacuities, which are thus reduced in size and, as it were, pushed aside. 



In Uylaoc/tampsa (PI. II, fig. 25) the vacuity (y) on each side of the bony palate is 

 formed or bounded behind by the pterygoid (24) and ectopterygoid (25) and in front by the 

 palatine (20), and probably by a small part of the maxillary (21), though here a portion of 

 the antero-external part of the boundary is broken away. But sufficient remains to show 

 that the vacuity is natural and is homologous with the " grand trou palatine " in 

 Teleosaurus cadomensis, and with that called " grand vide palatine " or " trou palatine 

 posterieur by Eudes-Deslongchamps in Teleosaurus temporalis {Pelayosaurus typus) ; 

 consequently with those which I have termed ' pterygo-maxillary ' and symbolised by the 

 letter y in my ' Anatomy of Vertebrates,' loc. cit. The vacuities in the interspace between 

 the two ' pterygo-maxillary ' ones, bounded externally by the pterygoids and palatines, 

 answer to the "fosse nasale posterieure" of Cuvier in Teleosaurus cadomensis* and to the 

 " grande fosse pterygoidienne, qui limite en avant les arriere-narines " of Eudes- 

 Deslongchamps in Teleosaurus temporalis ; 4 consequently, also, to that which I have called 

 ' interpterygoid ' and symbolised by the letter s in Iguana? 



It is plain that the palatal or posterior opening of the nasal passages offers no 

 trustworthy homological character in Beptilia. It is anteriorly situated in Chelonia and 

 Lacertilia, where those passages are vertical or nearly so ; it is at the hindmost part of 

 the bony palate in modern Crocodiles, and in a more advanced position, though still in the 

 hinder half of the palate, in the mesozoic or ' amphiccelian ' Crocodiles. In each of these 

 cases it has a distinct anatomical conformation. In Chelonia and most Lacertilia {Varanus, 

 e.g.) its boundary includes parts of the vomer (13), palatine (20), and maxillary (21);^ 



1 ' Philosophical Transactions,' 1850, p. 521, pis. xl — xlii. 



2 E. d'Alton and H. Burmeister, ' Ueber der Fossile Gavial von Boll in Wurtemburg,' &c, 8vo, plates 

 in fol., Halle, 1854, in which the small hinder foramen is called "die vereinigten Mundungen der Eusta- 

 chischen Rbhren und gewisser Sinusse im Innern der Ossis occipitis." 



3 Tom. cit. 



4 'Notes Paleontologiques,' 8vo, 1S69, p. 146, pis. ix— xxiv, vi. 



5 Op. cit., fig. 98, d. 



6 Op. cit., fig. 98, b. 



