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    Nuevo Documento de Texto

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    Nuevo documento de texto - copia (32) - copia - copia

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    of 5

    Plesiosauridae (p. 478).

    Elasmosauridae (p. 478).

    ICHTHYOSAURIA (p. 478) Ichthyosauri (p. 483).

    PTEROSAURIA (p. 484) Pterosauri (p. 486) brace

    Fig. 18.–Amphiuma means. × ⅕.

    Amphiuma means s. tridactyla.–The limbs are very much reduced, and end in two or
    three little fingers or toes. Just in front of the fore-limbs lies the pair of
    small gill-clefts, each guarded by two flaps of the skin. There are four branchial
    arches. The general colour of this eel-shaped creature is black, lighter below. The
    head is covered with numerous pores, arranged in several rows, which unite in the
    region of the neck, so that only two rows extend along the sides of the body. It
    reaches a length of three feet, and lives in swamps or muddy waters, for instance
    in the ditches of rice-fields, burrowing occasionally in the mud, feeding on
    crayfishes, molluscs, small fishes, etc. It is confined to the south-eastern States
    of North America, from Carolina to Mississippi. According to Davison,[47]
    copulation takes place in May. The rather hard-shelled eggs are deposited in the
    following August or September, and are connected by a twisted cord. The female lies
    about them in a coil. The embryos, which are hatched in the month of November or
    December, have well-developed external gills. By the following February they have
    {102}reached a length of from 68 to 90 mm. (about 3 inches), living in damp
    localities under rocks or rooted stumps, and have already lost their gills. The
    legs are said to be relatively longer than they are in the adult.

    Fam. 2. Salamandridae (Salamanders and Newts).–Without gills in the perfect state.


    Maxillaries are present. Both jaws are furnished with teeth. The eyes are protected
    by movable lids, except in Typhlotriton. Fore- and hind-limbs present, although
    sometimes very much reduced.

    To this family belong by far the greater number of tailed Amphibia. They have been,
    for the sake of convenience, grouped into four sub-families, the determining
    characters of which are all internal and of comparatively slight importance. Little
    better is the division into Mecodonta, with the teeth of the palate in two
    longitudinal rows diverging behind and inserted upon the inner margins of the two
    palatine processes, which are much prolonged posteriorly, and Lechriodonta, in
    which the series of palatal teeth are restricted to the posterior portion of the
    vomers and form either transverse or posteriorly converging rows.

    I. Series of palatal teeth transverse, restricted to the posterior portion of the


    vomers. Parasphenoid beset with dentigerous plates.

    Vertebrae opisthocoelous: Desmognathinae, p. 102.

    " amphicoelous: Plethodontinae, p. 103.

    II. Series of palatal teeth transverse or posteriorly converging, restricted to the


    posterior portion of the vomers. Parasphenoid toothless. Vertebrae amphicoelous:
    Amblystomatinae, p. 109.

    III. Series of palatal teeth in two longitudinal series, diverging behind, inserted
    on the inner margin of the long palatine processes. Parasphenoid toothless.
    Vertebrae amphicoelous: Salamandrinae, p. 115.

    Sub-Fam. 1. Desmognathinae.–Comprising only three genera, with five species, in


    North America. Five toes.
    Desmognathus.–The tongue is attached along the median line, free behind, oval in
    shape. Three species in the eastern half of the United States. D. fuscus is one of
    the lungless Urodela, for which condition see p. 46. The skin is nearly smooth;
    parotoids prominent, gular fold strongly marked. General colour above, brown
    suffused with pink and grey, sometimes with a dark lateral band; under parts
    mottled brown. The vomerine teeth are frequently absent. Total length, about 4 to 5
    inches. They live, carefully concealed in the daytime, under {103}stones in or on
    the edge of the banks of little mountain streams. The eggs are laid in two long
    strings, and are wrapped round the body of the female like a rosary, the female
    having resorted to a hollow in the mud, below a stone or other suitable place. The
    outer envelope of each egg tapers out into a short stalk, and the several stalks
    all converge, or are glued together into one common knot, "much like a bunch of toy
    balloons held in the hand of a street vendor." The egg is said to be meroblastic.
    The larvae seem to remain in the egg until they are nearly adult, and they emerge
    at midsummer, with the gills already much reduced. The complete metamorphosis takes
    place in the autumn of the same year. These little newts can, according to Wilder,
    [48] be collected all the year round, in Massachusetts from March to December,
    except during the time of deep snow. They are nocturnal and are easily kept.
    fig19

    Fig. 19.–Desmognathus

    Pterodactyli (p. 486).

    Homalopsinae (p. 625).


    Colubridae
    Proteroglypha (p. 625) brace

    Elapinae (p. 626).

    Hydrophinae (p. 635).


    Amblycephalidae (p. 637).
    Viperidae (p. 637) brace

    Viperinae (p. 638).

    Crotalinae (p. 644).


    PART I

    AMPHIBIA

    "'s scheint, dass die hier oben keine

    Ahnung haben von dem Sumpf und

    Seiner Pracht."

    The "plattgedrückte Kröte,"

    Scheffel's Trompeter von Säkkingen.


    {3}
    CHAPTER I

    AMPHIBIA

    CHARACTERS AND DEFINITION–POSITION OF THE CLASS AMPHIBIA IN THE PHYLUM VERTEBRATA–


    HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE CLASSIFICATION OF AMPHIBIA
    A bird is known by its feathers, a Beast by its hairs, a Fish by its fins, but
    there is no such obvious feature which characterises the Amphibia and the Reptiles.
    In fact, they are neither fish, flesh, nor fowl. This ill-defined position is
    indicated by the want of vernacular names for these two classes, a deficiency which
    applies not only to the English language. All the creatures in question are
    backboned, creeping animals. Those which are covered with horny scales, and which
    from their birth breathe by lungs only, as Crocodiles, Tortoises, Lizards, and
    Snakes, are the Reptiles. The rest, for instance, Newts or Efts, Frogs and Toads,
    are the Amphibia. Their skin is mostly smooth and clammy and devoid of scales; the
    young are different from the adult in so far as they breathe by gills and live in
    the water, before they are transformed into entirely lung-breathing, terrestrial
    creatures. But there are many exceptions. Proteus and Siren the mud-eel, always
    retain their gills; while not a few frogs undergo their metamorphosis within the
    egg, and never breathe by gills. If we add the tropical limbless, burrowing
    Coecilians, and last, not least, the Labyrinthodonts and other fossil forms, the
    proper definition of the class Amphibia,–in other words, the reasons for grouping
    them together into one class, separated from the other backboned animals,–requires
    the examination of many other characters.
    {4}

    So far as numbers of living species are concerned, the Amphibia are the least
    numerous of the Vertebrata. There are about 40 limbless, burrowing Apoda; 100
    Urodela or tailed two- or four-footed newts, and about 900 Anura, or tailless,
    four-footed frogs and toads; in all some 1000 different species. Few, indeed, in
    comparison with the 2700 Mammals, 3500 Reptiles, nearly 8000 Fishes, and almost
    10,000 Birds. But we shall see that the Amphibia have not only "had their day,"
    having flourished in bygone ages when they divided the world, so far as Vertebrata
    were concerned, between themselves and the Fishes, but that they never attained a
    dominant position. Intermediate between the aquatic Fishes and the gradually rising
    terrestrial Reptiles they had to fight, so to speak, with a double front during the
    struggle of evolution, until by now most of them have become extinct. The rest
    persist literally in nooks and corners of the teeming world, and only the Frogs and
    Toads, the more recent branch of the Amphibian tree, have spread over the whole
    globe, exhibiting almost endless variations of the same narrow, much specialised
    plan. The greatest charm of the Anura lies in their marvellous adaptation to
    prevailing circumstances; and the nursing habits of some kinds read almost like
    fairy-tales.

    Characters of the Amphibia.[1]

    1. The vertebrae are (a) acentrous, (b) pseudocentrous, or (c) notocentrous.

    2. The skull articulates with the atlas by two condyles which are formed by the
    lateral occipitals. For exceptions see p. 78.

    3. There is an auditory columellar apparatus, fitting into the fenestra ovalis.

    4. The limbs are of the tetrapodous, pentadactyle type.

    5. The red blood-corpuscles are nucleated, biconvex, and oval.

    6. The heart is (a) divided into two atria and one ventricle, and (b) it has a
    conus provided with valves.

    7. The aortic arches are strictly symmetrical.

    8. Gills are present at least during some early stages of development.

    9. The kidneys are provided with persistent nephrostomes.


    10. Lateral sense-organs are present at least during the larval stage.

    11. The vagus


    Pteranodontes (p. 487).

    PYTHONOMORPHA (p. 487) brace

    Dolichosauri (p. 489).

    Mosasauri (p. 489).

    SAURIA (p. 491)


    brace Lacertilia (p. 491) brace Geckones (p. 502)
    Geckonidae (p. 507) brace

    Geckoninae (p. 507).

    Eublepharinae (p. 512).

    Uroplatinae (p. 512).


    Lacertae (p. 513) brace

    Agamidae (p. 515).

    Iguanidae (p. 528).

    Xenosauridae (p. 536).

    Zonuridae (p. 536).

    Anguidae (p. 537).

    Helodermatidae (p. 540).

    Lanthanotidae (p. 541).

    Varanidae (p. 542).

    Xantusiidae (p. 547).

    Tejidae (p. 547).

    Lacertidae (p. 549).

    Gerrhosauridae (p. 559).

    Scincidae (p. 559).

    Anelytropidae (p. 564).

    Dibamidae (p. 564).

    Aniellidae (p. 564).

    Amphisbaenidae (p. 565).

    Pygopodidae (p. 567).


    Chamaeleontes (p. 567) brace Chamaeleontidae (p. 573).
    Ophidia (p. 581) brace

    Typhlopidae (p. 593).

    Glauconiidae (p. 594).

    Ilysiidae (p. 594).

    Uropeltidae (p. 595).


    Boidae (p. 596) brace

    Pythoninae (p. 598).

    Boinae (p. 601).


    Xenopeltidae (p. 605).
    Colubridae (p. 606)
    Aglypha (p. 606) brace

    Acrochordinae (p. 606).

    Colubrinae (p. 607).

    Rhachiodontinae (p. 622).


    Colubridae
    Opisthoglypha (p. 623) brace

    Dipsadomorphinae (p. 623).

    Elachistodontinae (p. 625).

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