FOSSIL VARANIDAE AND MEGALANIDAE. 
865 
München und Berlin, 1911. p. 211; Werner, Kept. Amph., «animi. Göschen Nr. 383, 
Leipzig, 1908. p. 72, & Brehm's Tierleben, Bd. V, Kriecht., Leipzig und Wien, 1912, 
p. 123; De Stefano, Sauri del Quercy Col]. Rossignol, Atti Soc. Ital. Sc. Nat., Vol. 
XLII, 1903, p. 407. 
In the characterization of this family as given below with regard 
to its f o s s i 1 as well as to its recent members, I have 
entirely followed the excellent definition of it to found in Boulenger’s 
«Fauna of Brit. Ind.» (p. 160—161), only adding a few remarks of mine 
concerning the zvgosphen and zygantrum and Lydekkers’ observations 
(op. cit. p. 281) relating to the vertebrae, as having greater practical impor¬ 
tance in comparison with the Megalanidae and with fossils in general. 1 
The skull is provided with incomplete (= open) post-orbital and com¬ 
plete (= joined) bony postfronto-squamosal arches ; supratemporal fossa 
uncovered; a single praemaxillary bone,’ very narrow and eloagated back¬ 
wards ; nasals coalesced and narrow; parietal single ; infraorbital vacuity 
bounded by the pterygoid the palatine and the transverse bones, the maxil¬ 
lary being excluded: frontals entirely surrounding the olfactory lobes 
of the brain ; there is an interorbital septum composed of fibrous cartilage ; 
columella cranii is present. Teeth large-sized and dilated at the base adhering 
by it to the inner side of the jaw; 2 no palatine teeth. Vertebrae procoelous ; 
no zygosphen nor zygantrum : the ventral surface of the dorsal 
vertebrae is broad, flat, not or but relatively slightly keeled. No dermal 
ossifications appear on head and body. Clavicle slender not dilated, inter¬ 
clavicle (=episternum) anchor shaped. (The tongue is smooth, very long 
and slender, bifid, retractile into a sheath at the base. Pupil round; 
eyelids well developed; tympanum distinct.) Limbs well developed and 
strong; neck long; tail long, cylindrical or compressed. (Head covered 
with small polygonal scales. Dorsal scales roundish, juxtaposed, surroun¬ 
ded by rings of minute granules ; ventral scales squarish, arranged in 
cross rows. Femoral or præanal pores absent). 
Largesized carnivorous lizards living on the continent or inhabiting 
water. (V. griseus Baud, seems to be chiefly a desert form, whilst 
F. salvator and niloticus, owing to the fact of their tail being strongly com¬ 
pressed deserve the name of Water Lizards; the Papuan emerald-green 
V. prasinus is supposed to be arboreal. Eggs oval-shaped and soft shelled.) 
Á single genus : 
1 The characters which could not be recognized on the remains are put iru 
parantheses. 
2 Pleurodont type. 
