74 SAUROIDS. 



each premandibular bone were opposed to the molar teeth above. 

 The side view of these teeth (PL 30, fig. 4) shows their elevation above 

 the jaw. In the vomer, a median row of transversely oblong teeth is 

 bounded by smaller subcircular teeth, as in the other Pycnodonts. 



SAUROIDS. 



29. I'his family of voracious fishes is represented in the existing 

 creation by extremely few species, which are severally the types of the 

 genera Lepidosteus, Amia, and Polypterus ; and these genera are dis- 

 tributed at remote distances in the great rivers of the American and 

 African continents. The general character of the teeth in this family 

 is to have larger ones of a conical form intermixed with more nume- 

 rous teeth of smaller size. 



The Sauroid fishes have teeth on the intermaxillary, premandi- 

 bular, palatine and vomerine bones. These teeth are conical and 

 sharp-pointed : some are large, and are separated by interspaces 

 occupied by similarly shaped but much smaller and more numerous 

 teeth. The larger teeth are grooved longitudinally at the base, and 

 have a large conical pulp-cavity within. Their fluted base sinks into 

 an alveolar cavity of the jaw, but is intimately blended with its bony 

 walls, in a manner which will be more particularly described in the 

 teeth of the Rhizodus. 



In the jaws of the Polypterus of the Nile, there are two rows of 

 equal, fine, sharp, approximated teeth ; those of the anterior row are 

 the largest; the posterior ones are like the teeth of a rasp. 



In the Stony-gar [Lepidosteus) of the North American rivers, 

 the elongated jaws are also armed with similar laniary and rasp-like 

 teeth : the outer row consists of numerous conical sharp-pointed 

 teeth, which are separated by regular intervals containing the sockets 

 of old teeth which have been shed, and the germs of new ones. 

 External to these larger teeth there is a less interrupted row of 

 smaller conical teeth. (1) The inner border of the dentigerous margin of 

 the jaw is beset with a series of small rasp-like teeth ; and similar 

 teeth are present on the vomer and the palatine bones. The larger 

 conical teeth are developed in alveolar cavities, but their basis becomes 



(1) PI. 35, fig. 1. 



