WEALDEN CROCODILES. 631 



Family.— STEREOSPONDILIA. 



Genus — Goniopholis. 



Species — Goniopholis simus, Ow. Crocodilia, PI. 40. 



This species is founded upon the entire skull, minus the lower jaw, imbedded in the 

 limestone of the Swanage quarry, of which skull a reduced view of the upper surface is 

 given in PI. 40, fig. 1 ; and of so much of the under surface (ib., fig. 2) as could be 

 brought to light by exploratory operation on that part of the imbedding slab. 



The skull in its general shape corresponds with the broad-faced species of the 

 Procoelian Crocodiles;^ and in the festooned contour of the alveolar borders, with those 

 having teeth of unequal size, and with a crown of mainly the proportions of the teeth in 

 the present Amphicoelian genus. 



The conclusion conveyed by the latter expression is not, indeed, based upon the 

 discovery of vertebrae in such contiguity with the present skull as to support an inference 

 as to their having formed part of the same skeleton ; but it is a probable one from the 

 association of such vertebrce with the nearly allied species Goniojjholis crassidens {ante, 

 p. 427) ; and such probability is strengthened by the nature of the cranial modifications 

 by which the skull under review differs from those of the Procoelian species most nearly 

 resembling it in shape. 



The temporal vacuities (ib., fig. 1, t) are relatively larger than in Crocodilus proper, 

 or other broad-faced Procoelians, and are subquadrate in form. The palatonaris (ib., 

 fig. 2, n) is not only larger, but is more advanced in position, so as to come wholly into 

 view on the bony palate, and on the same plane therewith ; and here, moreover, they 

 receive, for completion of their anterior contour, the hinder ends of the proper palatine 

 bones (ib., ib. 20), three fourths only of the border being contributed by the pterygoids 

 (ib., ib. 24). The Eustachian aperture (ib., ib., e) is likewise on the palatal, not the 

 occipital, plane.^ 



In these characters is manifested the nearer aifinity of the Purbeck Crocodilian to the 

 Amphicoelian Teleosaurs^ than any Tertiary or modern genus presents. 



The following are amongst the modifications of minor import in the skull of the 

 present species of Goniopholis. The external nostril (PI. 40, fig. 1, «), horizontal in 

 position, is more nearly terminal than in modern Crocodiles, or than in Goniopholis 

 crassidens (?\. 11, fig. 1). It is formed by the premaxillaries exclusively; the nasal 

 bones terminating about an inch behind the nostril. In Procoelian Crocodiles a 

 graduated series of developments of the nasal bones can be traced. They may be short, 



* Cuvier, ' Ossera. Foss.,' torn, v, part ii, pi. i, figs. 4 and 5. 



2 See ' Phil. Trans.,' mdcccl, pi. xi, fig. 1 e. 



3 lb., p. 522. 



18 5 



