Sphenodon

“ Remnants of the Müllerian ducts run parallel with the vasa deferentia, and similar remnants of the Wolffian ducts accompany the oviducts in crocodiles and tortoises, least degenerated of course in young specimens. Such reciprocal vestiges occur most likely also in lizards, and in female snakes a vestige of the male duct joins its ureter. In a nearly adult male Sphenodon the present writer missed the female remnants.
The copulatory organs show very important modifications. Sphenodon is the only recent reptile which is devoid of such an organ ”

“ The upper jaw of Sphenodon and other Rhynchocephalia is provided with two parallel rows of teeth, one borne on the maxillae and one on the palatines, the mandibular teeth bite in a groove between these two rows. The bone of the jaws in Sphenodon is so hard that when the teeth get worn away, it can act as a substitute. In the young Sphenodon the vomers bear teeth, as they do also in Proterosaurus.
There is generally a continuous succession of teeth throughout life, the new tooth coming up below, or partly at the side of the one in use, and causing the absorption of part of its wall or base. ”

“ E. D. Cope named them postoptics, and remarked that in Sphenodon they coexist with an orbitosphenoid bone. The proötic has a notch in its anterior lateral margin for the passage of the trigeminal nerve. The opisthotic portion of the petrosal mass is intimately fused with the lateral occipital bones and their paroccipital process, and sometimes, e.g. Tejus, encloses with them many intricate recesses of the middle ear-chamber, which extend also into hollow and swollen thick downward processes of the basioccipital. ”

“ The upper end of the hyoid either remains attached to the parotic process (various lizards and Sphenodon) whence the lingual apparatus remains suspended, or the hyoid, having broken loose, leaves a little cartilage, Versluy's cartilage, behind, at the end of the parotic process, and the hyoid horn remains free, in the majority of lizards. In Sphenodon, whilst passing the distal portion of the extra-columella, part of the hyoid fuses with it, often forming thereby a little hole, the remnant of imperfect fusion. ”

“ Of the Rhynchocephalia, there is but a single species now living, the Tuatera or Sphenodon, confined to the islands off the northeast of New Zealand, and very rare. It is a small animal, seldom attaining a length of twenty inches, lizard-like in habits and appearance. Though now so near extinction, the order during Paleozoic times was an important one, both in size and variety. No older reptiles are known. ”

“ Their ancestors are the Microsauri, whilst they themselves seem to be very near the root whence have sprung most, if not all, other main branches of the reptiles, notably Crocodilia, Dinosauria, and Sauria. In fact the Prosauri, although apparently few in number, seem to represent the central stem of the reptilian tree. Only one of them is still surviving, the famous Sphenodon, now represented by a single species in New Zealand. ”

“ This can easily be proved, whether we take for comparison the muscles of the neck, of the larynx or hyoid, or limbs. Lowest in general stands Sphenodon, next to it the lizards, highest the crocodiles, while tortoises and snakes show the greatest reduction and specialization. In the tortoises it is the non-yielding box of carapace and plastron which has caused great changes within the region of the trunk proper. ”

“ This is still very short in Sphenodon, while in crocodiles, tortoises and in the highly developed Varanidae the bronchus enters near the middle of its lung, so that the anterior portion is nearly as long as the posterior. The shape of the trunk influences that of the lungs. In the snake-shaped forms, both snakes and lizards alike, the lungs have become very asymmetrical, one of them being much larger than the other, which is often quite aborted. ”

“ The hatteria belongs to the lizard-like reptiles with tails and scales; is possessed of four legs, the front pair being hand-like in structure. The creature suggests to us some venerable grandparent who has divided a large part of his patrimony among numerous descendants and collaterals; for the other four orders of reptiles all share some of the characteristics of the hatteria, as if it had divided its traits among them. We might write them thus:—
So there is the hatteria, or sphenodon, a link between the new and the old. ”

“ The nearest living representative of these extinct Proreptilia is the New Zealand reptile Hatteria, or Sphenodon, close relations of which are known from the Upper Trias; while others—e.g., Palæohatteria—have been discovered in the Permian. Anyhow, Sphenodon is the reptile which stands nearest to the main stem of our ancestry.
The most important characteristics of the Reptilia, which mark a higher stage or level, are (1) The entire suppression of the gills—although during the embryonic development the gill-clefts still appear in all reptiles, birds, and mammals ”

“ The walls of the anterior half of the sclerotic of lizards, tortoises and Sphenodon contain numerous cartilaginous or osseous plates, which imbricate in ring shape; they are absent in snakes and crocodiles. Internally the eye of most reptiles possesses at least traces of a pecten; very small indeed in tortoises, or in crocodiles where it is represented by only a few mosslike, pigmented vessels. In many lizards these vessels, arising from near the optic nerve, form a network which extends right up to the posterior side of the lens ”

“ Ribs are present in the cervical, thoracic and lumbar regions, and in the Chelonia (tortoises) the cervical ones blend with the vertebrae as they do in higher forms. In crocodiles a definite vertebrarterial canal is established in the cervical region which henceforward becomes permanent. The shafts of the ribs are sometimes all in one piece as in snakes or they may be developed by three separate centres as in Sphenodon with intervening joints. In these cases dorsal, intermediate and ventral elements to each shaft are present. ”

“ In the crocodiles they are planted into separate alveoles in the maxilla, premaxilla and under jaw. In lizards they are either pleurodont, i.e. they stand in a series upon a longitudinal ridge which projects from the lingual side of the supporting bone, or they stand upon the upper rim of the bone, acrodont. In either case they are, when full grown, cemented on to the bone. Acrodont are amongst lizards only the Agamidae; the Tejidae are intermediate, almost acrodont. All the snakes and Sphenodon are acrodont. ”

“ TO those who have already been startled by the memoir of Dr. W. Baldwin Spencer on the presence and structure of the pineal gland in Lacertilia, and the evidence that it represents a third eye in a rudimentary condition, it will be interesting to know that among some of the earlier mammals the pineal gland may have assumed functional importance as an eye. Professor Henry F. Osborn [2] shows that in the skull of the curious mammal Tritylodon, of Owen, there is seen a parietal foramen in exactly the same position and relation as in the lizard Sphenodon. ”

“ The caterpillars of the Sphingidæ are known to behave themselves in different manners when attacked. Some species, such, for instance, as Sphinx Ligustri and Smerinthus Ocellatus, on the approach of danger assume the so-called Sphinx attitude; if they are then actually seized, they dash themselves madly to right and left, by this means not only attempting to get free, but also to terrify330 their persecutor. This habit frequently succeeds with men, and more especially with women and children ”

“ For the matter of that, Lacedaemonians, we should have been by your sides long ago, if Xenophon had not persuaded us and brought us hither. We have never ceased campaigning, night and day, the dismal winter through, but he reaps the fruit of our toils. Seuthes has enriched him privately, but deprives us of our honest earnings; so that, standing here as I do to address you first, all I can say is, that if I might see the fellow stoned to death as a penalty for all the long dance he has led us, I should feel I had got my pay in full, and no longer grudge the pains we have undergone. ”

“ The Sphinx may be considered as more especially an artistic and symbolic creation, though the old Greek myth of Œdipos would seem to show that in very early times there was a real belief in a real monster. The sphinx is composite in nature, being in Greek art and legend ordinarily the combination of the head and bust of a woman with the body of a lion and the wings of an eagle; while in Egyptian art the creature is always wingless, and its recumbent leonine body is surmounted by the head of a man, hawk, or other creature. ”

“ We may define the genus Sphenophyllum as follows:—
Stem comparatively slender (1·5–15 mm.?) , articulated, usually somewhat tumid at the nodes; the surface of the internodes is marked by more or less distinct ribs and grooves which do not alternate at the nodes, but follow a straight course from one internode to the next. A single branch is occasionally given off from a node. Adventitious roots are very rarely seen, their surface does not show the ridges and grooves of the foliage-shoots. ”

“ One of Tennyson's earlier poems, The Sea-Fairies, deals with the same theme, and indeed it has appeared constantly in the literature of the world.... The Sphinx, a familiar subject in Egyptian art, had a lion's body, the head of some other animal (sometimes man) and wings. It was a symbolical figure. The most famous example is of course the gigantic Sphinx near the Pyramids in Egypt, which has proved to be an inexhaustible theme for speculation and for poetry.... The theatrically tragic mood of Byron is contrasted with the easy-going, somewhat cynical epicureanism of Horace.... ”

“ Flinging down the sheep’s pelt and setting his foot upon it, he breaks his distaff in pieces and, threatening Omphale, drives the Nymphs off the scene, left. [During this excitement, Servus—who has been standing aside—seizes the heap of wool, and exit with it in flight.] Turning then to the image of the Sphinx, Hercules expresses in dumb-show how, lured by the riddle of the Sphinx, he aspires to fight and conquer the world for her sake. Laying his club and lion’s skin devoutly at the foot of the column, he kneels, embraces it, and raises then his arms in supplication to the Sphinx. ”

“ The shallow depression in the crown of the head, once thought to be the terminus of a closed up passageway leading from the Sphinx to the Great Pyramid, was merely intended to help support a headdress now missing.
Metal rods have been driven into the Sphinx in a vain effort to discover chambers or passages within its body. The major part of the Sphinx is a single stone, but the front paws have been built up of smaller stones. The Sphinx is about 200 feet long, 70 feet high, and 38 feet wide across the shoulders. ”

“ The Sphinx overcomes us by his stony, his disdainful silence. Let the visitor be ever so unimpassioned, surely he must be more than mortal to resist the impression of mingled awe, wonder, and admiration which a first sight of this weird object forces upon him. ”

“ It is a fresh-water snake, called Cobra d’aqua in Brazil, also Surucucu (from its evil reputation) . But Dr. Wucherer says not a word of those fang-like teeth.
Meanwhile Dr. Stradling had most kindly sent me the magnificent specimen of ‘Curucucu’ (Lachesis mutus) , in spirits; and this, together with the investigation of certain other vernaculars, made the Xenodon of only secondary interest in our correspondence until exactly six months afterwards, when, on landing, June 1881, he wrote that he was sending a Heterodon and another Xenodon to the Gardens. ”

“ The typical sphinx, a male or female head, with an animal’s body, in the Greek “the strangler,” signifies intelligence or force. It was a favorite form in architecture and sometimes the face was a portrait of an existing king or queen. The great Sphinx is said, from an inscription at Edfu, to represent one of the personifications of the god Horus. It was designated as Horem Khou, “Horus on the Horizon,” and bore the shape of a human-headed lion to vanquish Typhon (Set) principle of evil, and turning East awaited the resurrection of his father Osiris. ”

“ Timasion and the cavalry, who had the guides with them, and were moving on briskly in front, found themselves without knowing it at the very knoll upon which the Hellenes had been beleaguered. But no army could they discover, whether of friend or foe; only some starveling old women and men, with a few sheep and oxen which had been left behind. This news they reported to Xenophon and the main body. At first the marvel was what had happened; but ere long they found out by inquiries from the folk who had been left behind, that the Thracians had set off immediately after sundown, and were gone ”

“ A great proportion of the perfect insects have hyaline spots and patches in their wings, and nearly all of them are brilliantly coloured. It is known that Linnæus occasionally, as in Tenebrio and the present instance, made his genera recipients of species, which he found a difficulty in locating properly; but it is really astonishing to find a naturalist like Latreille abiding by so absurd a combination as the contents of the Linnæan genus Sphinx, and, in servile imitation, calling creatures which nothing but an unclouded sun ever tempts abroad—Crepuscularia. ”