250 On a Crapaudine Locket 



grave was found the small locket, or padlock, which is represented 

 in the woodcut. 



Crapaudine Locket, actual size. 



It is formed of two of the round smooth teeth of Sphcsrodus gigas,^ 

 ("Crapaudines") set together in an ornamental band of metal, to 

 which the loop of the lock is attached. The metallic parts have been 

 well gilded, and are in good preservation. The key-hole is cut in the 

 centre of one of the teeth, and some remains of the wards of the 

 lock may still be seen inside. Mr. A. W. Franks of the British 

 Museum, has examined this locket, and judging from the orna- 

 mentation, he thinks that it is not of later date than the sixteenth 

 century. He has never seen a similar object. 



Sphcerodiis gigas is a fossil fish,^ first described by Agassis, in 

 1833, as belonging to the family of Pycnodontes (hump-toothed 

 fishes), which are distinguished by the thick rounded form of their 

 teeth. These teeth were attached to the palate and lower jaw in 

 parallel rows, and formed an apparatus well adapted for crushing 

 the small shell-fish on which Sphserodus lived. 



The teeth have been found in situ only in the Kimmeridge Clay, 

 for though they occur in the Lower Green Sand at Seend, Wilts, (and 

 in no other locality in the county,) yet in this instance they have 

 evidently been washed out of the Kimmeridge Clay, during the 

 formation of the Lower Green Sand. I have specimens from 



^ It may possibly be of S. annularis, as the teeth of that species do not differ 

 much from the other. M. Agassis says, " Comme ni le squelette ni les ecailles 

 de ce genre sont connu, 11 est souvent tres difficile de distinguer les especes." 

 Poissons Fossiles, p. 240. 



