Dermal Bones of the Skull 



83 



the ,,Archaeolacertae" are smarter and more prudent than the ,,Neo- 

 lacertae*', and if it is really so, they would prove to be psychically, 

 i. e. with respect to their nervous System, decidedly higher deve- 

 loped than the ,,Neolacertae". The discussed osteological features, 

 as well as the phylogenetical age of this young Reptilian branch, 

 directly forbid to think of the possibility of a heterepistasis which 

 ought to result in the development of the sensory System on one 

 hand and the ,,soit-disant" primitivity of the skull on the other. 

 W ith respect to this latter character I must point out again 

 the stated phylogenetical absurdity of such a supposition. 



That the supraciliary membrane (,,fontanelle") calcifies, i. e. 

 ossifies in old males of Speeles which are generally characterized 

 by a fontanelle (Fig. 6 a & b), does not represent a biogenetical 



recapitulation, but is purely due to 

 an individual physiological 

 procedure, which, as a rule, does not 

 occur in females, in which the fon- 

 tanelle seems to be persistent. I 

 should like to observe, furthermore, 

 that such Speeles are, with respect 

 to their cranial characters, mostly 

 intermediatebet- 

 ween the ,,Neo- 

 lacertae", consti- 

 tuting the afona- 



nellous old er 

 type, and the 

 degenerated, fon- 

 tanelliferous „Ar- 

 chaeolacertae", 

 i. e. they repre- 

 sent the as yet 

 less degenerated 

 forms of the 

 fontanelliferous 

 type. 



The Genus 

 Lacerta encloses 

 thus a very inter- 

 esting Series, de- 

 monstrating the course of degeneration followed by the 

 secondary exoskeletale 1 elements^^) of the cranium, whilst 

 the more ancestral Lacertilian f amilies, referred to above, off er 



Figure 6 a. 



Figure 6 b. 



We saw (cfr. footnote 19) that in L. peloponnesiaca D. & B. 

 the bony dermal armour is not limited to the temporal region, but extends 

 even upon the mandibularies. This feature is decidedly ancestral in the 

 case of the genus Lacerta, which is one of the youngest representants of 

 the tectorbital type. 



6* 



Ilefl 



