OOLITIC CROCODILES. 143 



These vertebrge are cemented together by a matrix, which closely resembles 

 the gray Kimmeridge clay ; and a portion of a species of Peeten is attached, which 

 is one of the characteristic fossils of the oolite group of secondary rocks, especially 

 the Oxford clay. 



Genvf! — Steneosaurus, Geoffroy. 



CuviEE, after his instructive account of the remains of the " Gavial des carrieres 

 depierre calcaire des environs de Caen,"^ to which Geoffroy St. Hilaire attached 

 the name Teleosaurus, proceeds to describe the remains of another Gavial-like 

 Crocodile from a different, Init oolitic, locality." 



On these subjects Geoffroy St. Hilaire remarks^ : " Je termme cette premiere 

 lecture en prevenant que des objets representes en la planche vii des ' Osseviens 

 Fossiles,' il u'y a I'applicables an teleosaurus que les sujets figures sous les nos. 1, 

 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12, 14, et 17. Les autres objets (figs. 6, 7, 8, 9, etl3, 15, 16) 

 venaient de plus loin de Quilly ; ils proviennent d'une autre espece, se rapportant 

 a un autre genre que j'ai deja determine et nomme.* J'en traiterai ulterieurement 

 sous la denomination de i>ieneosaurus." 



Of the figures illustrative of this genus are selected, for the present work, 

 Cuvier's fig. 8 (PL 20, fig. 6), representing the palatal siirface of the upper jaw, one 

 fourth of the natural size, and Cuvier's fig. 13 (PL 20, fig. 5), representing the 

 upjjer surface of the fossil skull one twelfth of the natural size ; they represent the 

 types of the genus. 



To the characters of Steneosaurus, thereon founded, I have been able to add 

 those of the better preserved specimens, from the same geological zone, of a British 

 locality, in Plate 18 {CrocodiUa). 



Geoffroy St. Hilaire recognised that the oolitic Crocodilian made a nearer 

 approach to the Gavial than did the liassic Teleosaurus. The beak was relatively 

 shorter, and the external nostril less terminal. He writes : " Nous verrons que 

 ce genre est exactemeut intermediaire entre nos teleosaurus et le demembrement 

 dvi grand genre crocodile, dont j'ai traite sous le nom de GavialisJ 



" It has not," he rightly remarks, " a skull so long and slender as in Teleosau^-us, 

 but longer and slenderer than in Gavidlis." The transition towards modern or 

 existing Crocodiles, which Geoffroy advocates in these ' Memoires,' is toward the 



1 ' Ossemens Fossiles,' 4to., torn, v, pt. 2, p. 127. 



2 lb., p. 134 



3 " Divers Memoires sur de Grands Sauriens, &e.," ' Lu a I'Acad. Eoyale des Sciences,' le 

 4 octobre, 1830, p. 26. 



* ' Memoires du Musuum d'histoire iiat.,' torn, xii, 1825. 

 6 lb., p. 40. 



