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Show 110 MR. G. A. BOULENGER ON THE OSTEOLOGY OF [Jail. 20, With the kind aid of Professor Stewart, I have been able to bring together and compare the following material :- H. horridum, Wiegm. 1. Adult 2 skeleton from Salina Cruz, Mexico, obtained by Dr. A. Buller. In the British Museum. 2. Imperfect skull of a younger (half-grown) specimen from Mexico, extracted from an old skin. In the British Museum. H. suspectum, Cope. 1. Adult 2 skeleton. In the College of Surgeons. 2. Disarticulated skeleton, without the skull, of an adult 8 • In the College of Surgeons. 3. Right moiety of skull. In the British Museum. In the following notes I have limited myself to the skull and vertebral column *, which have alone yielded specific differences, the other parts of the skeleton of the two species not differing in any important point, so far as I can see. Skull. The following characters distinguish the skulls of H. horridum and H. suspectum :- In the latter, the oral portion of the prsemaxillary is narrower, and its ascending internarial bar wider, than in the former-this Fig. 1. I rvrrv^ Prajmaxillaries of H. horridum and H. suspect ion. Front view and upper view ; nat. size. internarial bar measuring, at its narrowest point, one third instead of one fourth or one fifth of the greatest width of the bone. Eight or nine prsemaxillary teeth are present in H. horridum, and only six in H. suspectum. Dr. Shufeldt, however, represents eight teeth in the latter species ; but his figure, showing all the teeth as of the 1 I must, however, remark that the number of phalanges is 2, 3, 4, 5, 3 in the man as, as correctly described by Shufeldt, whose figure, nevertheless, represents only four in the fourth finger, and 2, 3, 4, 5, 4 in the pes. Through terming the fifth metatarsal bone a tarsal, Shufeldt allows Heloderma but three phalanges in the fifth toe. |
