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M. Gervais on the skeletonof the luth (Sphargiscoriacea)Published online: 19 Oct 2009.

To cite this article: (1873) M. Gervais on the skeleton of the luth (Sphargiscoriacea), Annals and Magazine of Natural History: Series 4, 11:66, 470-470,DOI: 10.1080/00222937308696859

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00222937308696859

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470 Miscellaneous.

These muscular bundles have a most important part in the re- spiration of these animals. They do not swallow the air like the Batrachians ; but when they respire, the muscular bundles contract (as the heart itself would do), the air is expelled, and after the con- traction reenters the lungs by virtue of the elasticity of the thorax, aided, no doubt, by the elevator muscles of the r ibs . Contractions of the thoracic muscles take no part in the expiration, which is due solely to the muscles of the lungs themselves. I t does not seem probable that these pulmonary muscles are subjected to the will of the auimal; i t appears to me that they must act like the muscles of the iris, which contract independently according to the intensity of the light. When we observe one of these lizards breathing, the longest respiratory period is that of expiration, followed immediately by a sudden inspiration. When a mammal respires, the contrary is the case; a long inspiragon precedes a shorter expiration. The respiration of the Psammodromi therefore differs profoundly, both from an anatomical and a physiological point of view, from that of ~ammal ia and Birds. I t belongs to an intermediate type, which must take its place below that of the two classes just mentioned and above that of the Batrachia.--Oomptes t~endus, March 3, 1873, tome lxxvi, p. 585.

11I. Gervais on the STceleton of the Luth (Sp]~argis coriaeea).

Two specimens of this Turtle were caught on the coast of France in K a y 1872. One specimen was sent to Paris ; but i t arrived in such a bad state that it could only be made into a skeleton, there being none previously in the Anatomical Museum of Paris.

M. Gervais has published a paper on this specimen, which, though called adult, is evidently a young one, though the size is not stated ; and he has added some indications of the skeleton of a much younger animal, in the eighth volume of the '•ouvelles Archives du Musdum,' illustrated with five beautiful plates, and describes the skin of a new fossil species as Sphargis 19seudostracion, found in the blue calcareous strata of Valergnes (H~ranlt).

This paper confirms the account of the skeleton of this animal given by Dr. Gray in a previous number of the 'Annals. ' I t would be curious to compare this skeleton with the perfect skeleton from the coast of Demerara in the museum at 8tuttgard.

On an adult Skeleton of Tyrse nilotica in the British Museum. By Dr. J. E. GRAY, F.R.S. &e.

Dr. Baikie sent home a very fine skeleton of an adult Tyrs¢ from West Africa, which has just been mounted; and i t shows peculiarities which have not heretofore been observed in this animal.

The sternal eallosities are much broader and more developed. The

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