. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College. Zoology. Figure 7. Left maxilla and right dentary (reversed) of Pararhadinaea melanogaster Boenger (fiolotype, SMF 17885). Teeth drawn with dotted lines are missing. As in Pseudoxyrhopus oblectator (see Fig. 4), some of the teeth in this specimen were detached anterobasally and folded down; these have been restored to their normal position in the drawing. Scale bar = 1 mm. [1909] and Guibe [1958]): "11 ... teeth . . gradually becoming larger toward the back; from the sixth [vom sechsten] con- siderably larger" (empha
. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College. Zoology. Figure 7. Left maxilla and right dentary (reversed) of Pararhadinaea melanogaster Boenger (fiolotype, SMF 17885). Teeth drawn with dotted lines are missing. As in Pseudoxyrhopus oblectator (see Fig. 4), some of the teeth in this specimen were detached anterobasally and folded down; these have been restored to their normal position in the drawing. Scale bar = 1 mm. [1909] and Guibe [1958]): "11 ... teeth . . gradually becoming larger toward the back; from the sixth [vom sechsten] con- siderably larger" (emphasis added). Thus, Pararhadinaea melanogaster does not have one or two enlarged dentar)' teeth, but the entire posterior series after the sixth tooth (except the last tooth) is greatly enlarged (Fig. 7). Apart from mischaracterizing the dentary dentition oi Pararhadinaea melan- ogaster, Raxworthy and Nussbaum (1994) overlooked critical aspects of the maxillary dentition of "Pararhadinaea" albignaci. The interpretation of Pararhadinaea as having "one or two enlarged median den- tary teeth" is problematic because all den- tary teeth posterior to the first five or six are enlarged (Fig. 7). One interpretation of this condition is that Pararhadinaea has enlarged median dentary teeth (a charac- ter homologous with that of Pseudoxy- rhopus, "Pararhadinaea" albignaci, and Heteroliodon) and enlarged posterior den- tary teeth. However, the wide spacing of the posterior dentary teeth in Pararhadi- naea melanogaster is quite different from and possibly not homologous with the con- dition in the other taxa. This ambiguity has important consequences for understanding the relationships of Pararhadinaea. Aside from the holotype of Pararhadi- naea melanogaster (Fig. 8), the species is known definitely from only two other specimens, the holotypes of P. m. maroje- jijensis Domergue, 1984 (MNHN 1982- 1220; Fig. 9) and Rhabdotophis subcau- dalis Werner, 1909 (SMNS 4235
Size: 2953px × 846px
Photo credit: © Book Worm / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauthorharvarduniversity, bookcentury1900, booksubjectzoology
