Abstract
THE Annals of the Transvaal Museum (18, 349-413; 1936) contain four papers by Dr. R. Broom. The list of the Karroo reptiles is increased by 15 new genera and 23 new species. Many of these are to be described in further detail elsewhere, and this information leads us to wonder with what object Dr. Broom now publishes abbreviated descriptions, the day for seeking priority in the accounts of new species being assuredly passed. The species are described almost exclusively on their skulls, and most of these, to judge by the figures, were capable of restoration. This process is obviously a fine art as seen in the occiput of Notcelurops, pictured as preserved and as restored. Clearly, in dealing with such a large and widely distributed fauna as that of the Karroo, it is best for the collector to reserve his more imperfect specimens rather than to describe such as “types”. In this matter of “types” Broom has much to say in his “Review of some Recent Work on South African Fossil Reptiles” where he considers the publications of ten workers. The most prolific of these was Boonstra, who has contributed no less than twenty-four papers in the last six years.
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Museums and their Type Specimens. Nature 139, 62 (1937). https://doi.org/10.1038/139062b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/139062b0