NORTH-CAROLINA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



saurians of this description inhabited a region as far north as 

 New- York, while at the present day their limits are confined 

 to the central parts of North-Carolina. This fact, no doubt, 

 indicates a milder climate in New- York and New-Jersey than 

 is known at the present day. All the large land reptiles are 

 confined to the warmer regions of the globe. 



FIG. 35. (A.) 



CROCODILUS ANTIQUUS. LEIDY. 



Another extinct saurian (fig. 35, A.,) is indicated in the dis 

 covery of vertebra?,, which belong to, or are found in, the mio- 

 cene marls. The most perfect one which I have obtained, is 



the 2d caudal, which 

 as it is possible to 

 identify it, may be 

 compared with the 

 Alligator luscius, the 

 common large rep 

 tile of the Southern 

 States, inasmuch, too 

 as it belongs to the 

 same type of verte 

 brae. 



This vertebra dif 

 fers from the corres 

 ponding one to which 

 I have referred it ; it 

 is rather larger and 



thicker, and the proportion of its parts differ also. Its length 

 is one quarter of an inch greater, but its diameter at the con 

 cave end is three-eighths greater, and the size or diameter of 

 the body is still greater. The fossil is thick through its whole 

 length, and varies but little at the ends ; or it is much less 

 compressed laterally than the vertebra of the living Alliga 

 tor, and what is equally worthy of note, is, that the transverse- 

 processes come out more immediately from the body of the 

 vertebra than the other. One more point maybe made; a 

 ridge of bone begins near the middle at the concave end, and 

 runs a little downwards, until it reaches a slightly constricted 



