ME, J. EYANS OK THE ARCHjEOPTERTX. 



419 



jaw. The portion of the jaw to which they are attached is uiifor- 

 timately much injured, and there is no appearance of any teeth in 

 connection with the other limb of the V. The woodcut below gives 

 both views of the object. 



Jaw as seen on Principal Slab. 



Jaw as seen on Counterpart. 



Whether the whole is a lower jaw, with the teeth or rather a few 

 of them, remaining in one half only, and with the symphysis of 

 the jaw at the point of the Y ; or whether it is a portion of an 

 upper jaw in which the second limb of the Y would be probably 

 part of the facial and nasal bones, I cannot pretend to determine ; 

 and I am afraid that the whole is in too fragmentary and obscure a 

 condition for any positive conclusions to be drawn on this point. 



The character of the teeth, however, appears to me to be well- 

 defined. The three which remain in a vertical position with regard 

 to the jaw are about '10 inch long, and at intervals of about '20 inch. 

 They consist of a slightly tapering flattened enamelled crown, about 

 •04 inch in width and obtusely pointed, set upon what is apparently a 

 more bony base which widens out suddenly into a semi-elliptical form, 

 so that at the line of attachment to the jaw, the base of one tooth 

 comes in contact with that of the next. So sudden and extensive is 

 this widening of the base, that at first it gave me the impression that 

 the teeth were tricuspidate with the middle cusp far longer than the 

 others. 



The front tooth of the four which slopes forward from the rest, 

 and is rather smaller than the others, shows little if any similar 

 enlargement of its base. Of the fifth, which lies across the base of 

 the foremost of the other four, only a part is visible. There appears 

 to be a well defined line at the base of the teeth along their junction 

 to the jaw ; but I can offer no opinion as to the method of their 

 attachment. It is of course contrary to all our existing notions to 

 suppose that a jaw, such as this, armed with teeth, could belong to a 

 creature so truly bird-like in most respects as the Archseopteryx ; 



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