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Show attention. The junction of the palatine with the maxilla-the direct junction, not that through the transverse bone---is long and firm in Hatteria, a fact which, possibly, is correlated with the existence and position of the palatine teeth. Their groundwork is thus strengthened. As possibly comparable to this, it is interesting to note a slip of bone in I romastix (text-fig. 1, A.PL, p. 3), continuous with and not segmented off from the palatine, which runs forward in close apposition to the maxilla. Among the immediate allies of Urornastix, e. g. Amphibolurns, Iguana, this process of the palatine is aborted. Finally (so far as concerns the palate), it is important to notice that the palatine bones have not merely the long forward extension that has been referred to, but that they also extend a long way back, reaching, indeed, the transverse bones on either side. This has been noted in Urornastix, and it exists also in some other Lizards, but it is not a universal feature of the Lacertilia. I mention the matter here in order to suggest that these two features are an indication of the partial retention of a formerly more extensive palatal bone such as persists in Hatteria. I now turn to the consideration of certain points in the skull which do not appear to have been recorded, though I do not pretend that they bear upon the retention of any archaic characters. Text-fig. 2. 1905.] OSTEOLOGY OF THE MASTIGCItE LIZARD. 5 Lateral view of the skull figured on p. 3. Fr ., frontal; J., jugal; M .E ., mesethmoid ; If., nasal; P., parietal; q., quadrate ; p f , postfrontal; po., postorbital; Ft., pterygoid ; Sq., squamosal; St., supra-temporal. The oi'bital and postorbital regions offer some characters not without interest, and, as it appears to me, are not well known. Gegenbaur has figured and contrasted side views * of three Lacer-tilian skulls including Urornastix and Iguana. In the latter is correctly represented a large postorbital and a small postfrontal bone. I cannot, however, agree with Gegenbaur's figure of Urornastix-on the assumption, of course, that the species figured * Vergleichende Anatomie der Wirbelthiere, vol. i. p. 391. |