No. 534] NOTES AND LITEE ATI/EE 



379 



ants of high-and-dry land regions where tieetness of movement, 

 rather than obscurity, preserved them from their enemies, 

 crawling reptiles in everything save some insignificant technical 

 details of their palates." This has been recognized by many 

 students of the fossil amphibia and Gadow placed them in a new 

 group which he has called Proreptilia. but his classification does 

 not seem to have been accepted. Dr. Williston says further, 

 "Specialization of the microsaurs had reached the extraordinary 

 extent of snake-like limbless forms." These snake-like forms 

 have been usually associated in another order, the Aistopoa, but 

 the reviewer has shown elsewhere that the group is a hetero- 

 geneous one and is made up of specialized microsaurian forms 

 of diverse relationships. 



Dr. E. C. Case (6) has described three, perhaps four, new forms 

 of amphibia from the Permian of Texas. The forms as a whole are 

 very insufficiently described. One species. Trimerorhachis alleni 

 is described in ten lines and no figure given. This manner of 

 descriptions should be subjected to the severest criticism as it 

 imposes many heavy burdens on the shoulders of succeeding 

 workers. The new genus Trrsomins is not defined at all. While 

 we may not doubt that the genus is new, judging from the single 

 outline figure, yet it would have been much better, for those who 



had he given in what ways it differs from the other amphibia. 

 He allies the genus with Trimrrorhachis at least so far as resem- 

 blances are concerned. The new genus and species are given in 

 fifteen lines of less than ten words each. 



A new form, Gymnarthrus will on alibi, is much better 

 described. Its relations are uncertain. Dr. Broom allies it with 



remarks its close alliance with Cardhccphalus shrnbrrgii. which 

 is amphibian. If Gymnarthrus is not amphibian it is certainly 

 a very remarkable amphibian-like reptile. 



Dr. E. B. Branson (7) has described and figured, in an exeel- 



tracks a P re represented in the figure.^ The author proposes the 



amphibian footprints known from the Mississippian. 



The most notable attempt on the part of paleontologists, to 

 elucidate an entire amphibian fauna, is that of Armand Thevenin 

 (8) in the most important memoir on fossil amphibia for many 

 months. The National Academy of France awarded him a prize 



