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THE AMEBIC AX NATURALIST [Vol. XLIX 



Watson (11) has restudied the skulls of some of the 

 European Carboniferous labyrinthodonts, Loxomma, Pter- 

 oplax, and Anthracosaurus, and compared them with the 

 Coal Measures fish, MegalicMhys. His results have 

 already been reviewed by Gregory (7), so that it will only 

 be necessary here to say that these genera approach the 

 crossopterygian type of structure in various features. 

 The same author (12) has redescribed an interesting mi- 

 crosaur in which he is able to give a very complete account 

 of the structure of the dorsal and ventral surfaces of the 

 skull and pectoral girdle. He compares the newly recon- 

 structed microsaurian with Diplocaulus and Ceraterpeton. 

 It is very important that these little-known species from 

 Europe be restudied and redescribed, so that former ob- 

 servations may be corrected, corroborated and extended. 

 The status of 



The classification of the smaller stegocephalian Amphibia, so abun- 

 dant in the Coal Measures and Permian Rocks of Europe and North 

 America, is in such confusion, to which some recent work has added, 

 that it is at present only possible to proceed by reference to individual 



The reviewer finds himself in hearty accord with these 

 statements, although he must plead guilty of having 

 thrown some confusion into the classification of these ani- 

 mals in the hope that thereby order might ensue. 



Doctor Williston (14) has determined the complete os- 

 teology of the mandible in the early reptiles and amphib- 

 ians, working especially with the material from the Per- 

 mian of America. He says : 



In the structure of the mandible the amphibians are remarkably in- 

 termediate between the early reptiles and the contemporary cross- 

 I'l-icryiHaii fishes, differing from the latter chiefly in the reduced num- 

 ber of coronoids, and from the former chiefly in the possession of two 

 additional coronoids and a splenial. 



These results are corroborated by the studies of Doctor 

 Broom on similar material, so that any doubts as to the 

 real structure of the stegocephalian mandible are placed 

 at rest by the results arrived at by these separate investi- 

 gations. 



