library 
new YORK 
botanical 
OARDEN 
No. 3.—GENERAL ANATOMY OF TYPHLOMOLGE 
11A TUB UNI 1 
BY ELLEN TUCKER EMERSON, 2 d . 
Introduction. 
Typhlomolge rathbuni Stejneger, a blind, cave salamander, was 
discovered in 1894, when a dozen or more specimens were thrown 
up from an artesian well 188 feet deep, which had been bored by 
the United States fish commission, at San Marcos, Texas. An 
announcement of this discovery and a brief description of the ani¬ 
mal, from which I quote, were given by Dr. Leonhard Stejneger 
(’96). 
“ Description of type specimen .— Head excessively large and 
broad, the distance from tip of snout to base of upper gill branch 
but slightly less than distance between axilla and groin, its width 
equal to one-half the latter distance; snout very much depressed, 
broad, truncated, nearly square anteriorly; nostrils widely separated 
at the corners of the truncated snout, their distance greater than 
that between the eyes, which are deeply hidden under the skin and 
only visible as two small dark spots ; mouth comparatively small, 
with strongly developed labial lobes; body short and slender, the 
distance between axilla and groin being but slightly greater than 
length of head and only one-half the length of the tail, its width 
being much less than that of the head and even less than that of 
the snout; limbs excessively slender and long, of nearly even length, 
about one-fiftli of the total length ; fingers overlapping knee and 
toes overlapping elbow when adpressed to the sides of the body; 
fingers four, toes five; short, slender, free, with rounded tips, their 
relative length variable; tail comparatively long, nearly one-half the 
total length, much compressed, finned below and particularly strongly 
above, the end pointed. 
Skin smooth; a very strongly marked gular fold ; a well marked 
vertebral groove ; eleven costal grooves. Teeth on intermaxillaries 
and mandible small; the vomero-palatine teeth large, decreasing in 
size at both ends. Gill branches long and slender, the middle one 
longer; fimbriae long and slender, not bushy. 
1 Thesis prepared under the Fellowship in zoology, Smith college. 
