WEALDEN CROCODILES. 531 



Genus — Hyl^ochampsa, Owen. 



The subject of figs. 23 — 25, PI. 60, was discovered by the Rev. W. Fox, M.A., 

 in the Wealden of the south-west coast of the Isle of Wight. It is the hinder part of a 

 skull of a small or young Crocodilian, showing the occipital surface (ib., fig. 23), the 

 upper openings of the temporal fossae (ib., fig. 24 t) with the orbits (o) ; and so much of 

 the palate (ib., fig. 25) as permits of histructive comparisons with that seat of divers 

 modifications in other RepfUia. A few sockets of teeth are shown at the hind end of 

 both right and left maxillary bones. 



These indicate the teeth to have been relatively as large as in GoniopJiolis ; and, 

 although it is hazardous to conjecture the shape of the crown of a Crocodilian tooth from 

 the cylindrical root, as indicated by its socket, yet it seems to me probable that the teeth 

 of the present small Crocodilian resembled more those of Goniopholis {Crocodilia, PI. 7, 

 fig. 2) than of Siichosaurirs (ib., PL 5, fig. 4) or of PoiJciJopleuron (ib., ib., fig. 5). 



The outer surface of the cranial bones shows a different pattern of sculpture from that 

 in GoniopJiolis ; instead of small circular pits there are short irregular ridges, which, at 

 some parts, the postfrontals, for example, have a tendency to diverge from a reticulate 

 centre ; a number of short ridges and clefts radiate from the raised part of the border of 

 the temporal outlet ; but all these accentuations of the surface are rather feeble. 



As I know of no con-esponding specimen of a skull of any Wealden Crocodilian like 

 the present, and as it offers generic modifications of parts which are comparable with 

 Crocodilians of older and newer formations, I propose to describe the specimen as 

 representing a new genus and species under the name of " HylcBochampsa vectiana."^ 



The occipital surface (PI. 60, fig. 23), excluding therefrom the tympanies, 28, and 

 pterygoids, 24, is of a triangular form, with the base upward ; the apex is pierced by the 

 foramen, v. The breadth of this surface, taken at the mastoidean angles, 8, 8, is, to so much 

 of the vertical diameter as includes the foramen,/ as three to one. The basioccipital, i, 

 contributes the middle four fifths of the condyle, the upper angles of which hemispheroid 

 tubercle, due to the exoccipitals, are broken off. The centre of the condyle is feebly 

 impressed ; it projects, and is, as it were, sub-pedunculate. The basioccipital curves from 

 the condyle forward and downward, then descends vertically to the foramen, ty and is ridged 

 along the mid-line. The extent of the occiput below the foramen magnum,/, exceeds the part 

 above the foramen. The exoccipitals, 2, are the largest elements of this cranial segment ; 

 they meet above the foramen, excluding the superoccipital, 3, therefrom for an extent of 

 nearly three lines. The suture appeal's to be continued upward through the superoccipital, 3 



1 Gr. vXij, wood or weald ; ^nfii^ia, an Egyptian name of the crocodile. The specific name relates to 

 the lociility of the fossil. 



