870 ••• ' O. J. DB •Æ’Ejà.BV-ÀRY- • 
determinations would indeed be most desirable. 1 Concerning its relations, 
it is interesting to note that although I)e : Stefano might justly observe 
that the «Quercy» vertebrate fauna indicates. «una fauna essenzialmente 
africana» (op. ci t. p. 885), the pòinted-toothed V. Cayluxi Eilh. cannot 
be brought into closer connexion with V. niloiicus L. so much larger in 
size and whose teeth present, — at least dn West-African specimens —-a 
amblyodont (concilio vor) type. Whilst examining such question we must 
however beware of anachronism as it is difficult to decide upon the habits 
of the V.niloticus L.’s ancestors at the epochs referred to. As is well known 
the-young individuals of this species exhibit a type of teeth which so to say 
cannot yet be characterized as amblyodont, more approa¬ 
ching the pointed type, and curved backwards, as for instance with 
F. salvator Laue.; thus on the one hand the amblyodont type might be 
considered as a more recent, newer acquisition, whilst on the other, con¬ 
nections in the descent of the Monitors are as yet so far from being 
cléar, that we cannot even tell whether the origin of V. niloticus of 
our days is thus not to be sought for, after all, in the proximity of 
Y»- Cdyluxi, the contrast, existing between them being easily explained by 
the lapse of many ages. Another question is, how we are to understand this 
«fauna essenzialmente africana»? Properly-speaking this also is an a n a c h r o- 
n i s m ; the fauna is African with regard to its recent appearance ; in 
the Palaeogene however this, fauna was j~u s t . a s much of a North 
A f rie àn ais of a Wes t E u r o p e a hi type; the type of this 
West European fauna which is «essenzialmente africana» could iu 
no vise be considered of African o r i g i n, for, as known, the last continental 
connexion before the Eocene took place in the upper Trias. 
In this age these problematical representatives of the Quercy fauna could 
evidently not yet be taken into consideration as. the: Eulaoertilia did 
no t yet exist at that epoch, and even the oldest species of the Platy - 
nota , in which we are interested,’ only appear in the Cretaceous 
period, which fact makes it quite improbable, 1 could almost say impossiblé, 
that the Varanus, as youngest genus of this suborder, whose oldest 
remains are to be found in the upper Eocene, should originate from Africa ; 
and as the f a in i 1 y Varanidae is represented up to now by this only 
g e n u s, what has been said of the genus in question, has to be a d o p t e d 
f o r t h e f a m i 1 y a s well. The phenomenon of the recent Eeptile 
1 The dra^ngs published by Zittel (op. .cit. p. G03) under the term of «? Palaeo - 
varanus Cayluxi E ilhol» (Fig. 534) awake the suspicion of not belonging at all to Vara - 
nus; they should be regarded as throughout problematical, until a due examination of 
the original remains throws light upon this question. 
