. Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Institution; Smithsonian Institution. Archives; Discoveries in science. 700 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1898. Eocene, and I subsequently obtained from the marine Eoceue of New Jersey. Tiiese snakes were of large size, and display points of resem- blance to the Boidie. Venomous snakes first appear in the Upper Mio- cene. A'iperidii' were found by Lartet in France, and I have found Crotalida' in the corresponding (Loup Fork) bed in Kansas. The evi- dence from paleontology, then, is, so far, that the Peropoda appea
. Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Institution; Smithsonian Institution. Archives; Discoveries in science. 700 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1898. Eocene, and I subsequently obtained from the marine Eoceue of New Jersey. Tiiese snakes were of large size, and display points of resem- blance to the Boidie. Venomous snakes first appear in the Upper Mio- cene. A'iperidii' were found by Lartet in France, and I have found Crotalida' in the corresponding (Loup Fork) bed in Kansas. The evi- dence from paleontology, then, is, so far, that the Peropoda appeared earlier in time and the Solenoglypba later. This is in accordance witli their systematic; relations. However, we have little to base an actual phylogeny upon, from the paleontological evidence at present, and we can only draw inferences from structural characters in their relation to other groups of reptiles, and especially to the other orders of the Squamata. It is probable that the Peropoda are the earliest and ancestral form of the Serpentes, since they display characters in both the skeleton, penial structure and viscera, which approach the Sauria. The Scole- cophidia are allied to them, but can not be regarded as ancestral, but rather as degenerate descendants, being connected with them by the intervening group of the Tortricina. On the other hand, the ascending series may be traced through the Colubroidea to the Solenoglypha. Among the Colubroidea we may regard the Aglyphodonta as nearest the Peropoda and the Opisthoglypha and Proteroglypha as side branches. The latter lead to the Solenoglypha. AVe know of no direct transitions between Opisthoglypha and Proteroglypha, but the genera fhpiwdon Peters and Glyphodon Giinther, which have numerous grooved teeth, furnished an ancestral type from which both could have been derived. The Platycerca, some of which Bouleuger shows have grooved teeth behind the fangs, may have been derived from the same source. This phylogeny may
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