Occurrence of a Paired Parietal Bone In a Snake

A GENERAL conception of zoologists is that the parietal bonos are always fused into a large unpaired bone in Ophidia. During our recent investigation of the skeletal systems of different reptiles we found from an alizarine preparation of transparency that Typhlops braminus has a distinct paired parietal bone (Fig. 1). Perhaps their occurrence as such escaped the notice of the former investigators, the size of the skull being very small and alizarine preparation of transparency being unknown to them. The details of the skeletal system will bo published elsewhere.