FOSSIL VA RÁ NID A® ANU MF G ALA NID AE, 
m 
fauna of Africa bearing much resemblance to the Quercy fauna and haying 
many common characters with it, can be easily understood by the fact 
of the European i n d i v i d u a I s , of this fauna having later on in 
the Neogene passed over to A frica, where finding conditions cor¬ 
responding to the Ermo pean Palaeogene, they were able to survive 
in the subtropical surroundings, to a certain degree thereby presenting 
epistatic characters ; another possibility would be that, of certain member® 
of the treated fauna originated simultaneously from common ancestors 
in the respective parts of Europe and North Africa; whilst yet another 
part of the Quercy Eeptile world, proving more indifferent, may have adap¬ 
ted itself better to the cooler Neogene climate, and though undergoing 
certain changes, went on living in Europe, This explains why a part of 
Quercy ; Lacertilia, about which De Stefano does not give further parti? 
culars, «si approssimano a tipi generici oggi abitatori delT Emisfero occi¬ 
dentale», while other forms, as for instance the V aramdße, are almost 
entirely missing in Europe’s Postglacial fauna. . , . 
By the aforesaid I naturally only tried to give an exacter and g e n e- 
r a 1 biological explanation of De Stefano ’s two statements, as men¬ 
tioned above I am however far from declaring the Quercy Eeptile fauna 
to be, as such, the autochthonal fauna of Quercy; there will also be, of 
course, more or less autochthonous forms, amongst it, yet some, é ve irt ir¬ 
ai 1 y, might have migrated from other regions ; in this matter I can giv,e 
no opinion, as one cannot be too careful in generalizing, lest by forced expla¬ 
nations one were inclined to correct nature. More prudent it is for us to 
follow Du Bois Beymond’s example and acknowledge of some things 
«ignoramus et ignorabimus», thus at least we are sure not to sin against 
the cardinal duty of those who study Nature, and do not risk stating «facts» 
which are contrary to.truth. 
Hab»: Quercy (France). 
1 a. Tar anus cL? Cay luxi Filh. — Miocene. 
(Pl. I, Figs. 1-5). 
•. .) ... . ... ? *■ i ; ., uf .. . 
Reptile; très voisin du Monitor terrestre d’É g y pte, 
Jourdan, Soc. d’Agric. de Lyon, Procès verb., 1865. p. 37. 1 
Sa űrien du genre Varanus , Depéret, Rech. s. la suce, des Faunès' de 
Vert. Miocènes de la Vallée du Rhône, Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat. Lyon, T. IV^ me , 1887, 
p. 289. 
Among reptilian remains belonging to the Eoyal Hungarian Geolo¬ 
gical Institute I met with a fragmentary epistropheus obtained from La 
1 On ground of Ch. Depéret’s work here alluded to. 
24* 
