878 
G. J. DE FEJÉRVÁRY 
anatomical research settle the question by justifying.an identity, if stri¬ 
ding for a n a t u r al ,s y s tem free from artificial limits, we must, in 
spite of the long time (duration), and not from mere speculative 
consideration, give way to supposing things differently 
to how we see t h e m. 
Besides the palaeogeographical and palaeoclimatological conditions, — 
in spite of the long period embracing the whole Neogene age — do not pre¬ 
sent such far-reaching changes in the course, of, or between, the Mio¬ 
cén e and Pliocene, as could have, prevented the existence of the 
Fig. 5. Aspect of the World at the Miocene. (After Koken [in Arldt, op. cit., Karte 21], 
drawn by Miss Flora Lángh & the author). 
self same Var anus species and lead us to consider the rise, of a new 
species as necessary postulatum of changed biological conditions; on the 
cóntrary, Varanus is to-day. yet a tropical and s u btropical 
genus, and V. griseus Baud, is even met with in the temperat e zone 
(Oaspian-Sea) ; this latter species being besides the most widely extended, 
as according to Boulenger (datai. II., p. 807), it is inhabiting North- 
xifrica, Southwestern Asia, and from Arabia and the Caspian Sea to North- 
Western In dia, thus occurring in a very great part of the subtropical 
Old-World. As regards the Miocene and Pliocene geographical configura¬ 
tion of Central Europe, 1 it chiefly differs by the fact of the 
1 Kayser, Abriß d.allg. u.stratigr. Geologie, Stuttgart, 1915, p. 337 & p. 342—343. 
