Jávorka Sándor - Soós Lajos (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 29. (Budapest 1935)
Fejérváry, G. J.: Further contributions to a monograph of the Megalanidae and fossil Varanidae - with notes on recent Varanians
is its width —which proves of the average Lacertilian type — that shall stand here. Anterior height of vertebral canal at highest point, i. e. in median line, 8.61 mm, whilst greatest width of shaft (i. e. in its horizontal median line) 57 mm. If the former measurement he compared to both the latter one and the greatest width of the spinal channel, as indicated above, the result will prove self-speaking, affording clear evidence as to the singular form and size of the vertebral lumen in Megalania. It is important to note, in this place, that such conditions are obtaining throughout the whole course of the vertebral canal, as may easily be stated from the respective figures published by Sir R. OWEN and Mr. R. ETHERIDGE Jr. I wish to point out that circumstance because of some parallelism obtaining between Megalania and Dinosaurs: Megalania is a heavy-bodied form, its skeleton shows an excess of ossification, at least so far as the vertebrae are concerned — strangely enough the cranial elements and limb-bones do not take share in that physiological process — and the pituitary cavity (fossa hypophyseos or Spituitaria) of the skull is, in comparison to the capacity of the osseous cranium, abnormally large, a fact which suggested to the writer the inference that in Megalania a pathological gigantism might have set in as a consequence of the hypertrophy of the pituitary gland.' 12 Now, in spite of such analogies, there are marked differences in the bionomy of the evolution of Megalania and Dinosaurs. Though the brain-case is very small in both forms, we are facing in Dinosaurians structures that point to a very voluminous content of the spinal canal, the latter one getting very spacious in the sacral region, so as to prove, in that place, of a very much larger capacity than the osseous cranium — whilst in Megalania the relation existing between these tw x o capacities keeps close enough to the proportion-rate characteristic of Lacertilians, nay there is a decided shifting of the values to the benefit of the brain case's content. Briefly: the brain case of Megalania proves very small in comparison to the huge body and the spacious pituitary cavity, but it is still relatively large if compared to the spinal canal. It must be confessed that the bionomieal interpretation and explanation of these highly interesting facts is yet a matter of future investigation, since both the aetiognostic and nomognostic sides of the problem are, at the present day. totally obscure. The one thing 1 dare to fix is 02 NOPCSA: Über Dinosaurier. II: Die Riesen formen unter den • Dinosauriern. — Central!), f. Min. 1917. pp. 332—348, 3 Fig.
