TEL 



156 



TEL 



here jr'M-n, as imt of the earliest evidences nf nntient 



ilific publication, and 



. in-* that, notwithstanding the remark of Captain 

 Chapman, that -it seems to have been an alligator,' I 

 Mr. Wooller, that 'it resemble.-, in every respect ill. 

 getic G.ivial.' < 'amper pronouiu-ed it to be a whale, mean- 

 ing perhaps a dolphin : an opinion adopted In Kanjas, who 

 went ti step I'urlher, and referred it to the genus /Vn/wr-T. 

 Professor Owen points out Cuvicr's refutation ot ' Kaujas 

 in the first edition of the O.wmens Fottiles. and hi- decla- 

 ration in the same work that it was in truth a crocodile. 

 The Professor adds, that t.'uvier's >ulisc(|tiunt analysis led 

 him in Isl'J to the conclusion that it belonged to the 

 genus of Crocodiles, and was most probably identical in 

 species with the crocodile ol'Honfleur. 



Uut although the opinions of Messrs. Wooller and Chap- 

 iir.iu came much nearer to the truth than those of Camper 

 and Katija.s. thev were still distant from it : and Professor 

 Owen proceed* to show that the fossil really differs more 

 from the Gavial than the Gavia) does from any other 

 existing Crocodilian. 



IVr-uing his inquiry. Professor Owen remarks, that in 

 when so many new and singular genera, allied to the 



ulilian family, had been added to the catalogues of 



known whether it is a crocodile, or one of those new 

 genera discovered in the same beds. The bones of the 

 extremities are too incomplete, and the head is not repre- 

 sented with sufficient details, to decide the question : but 

 the vertebrse appear to me to be longer, in relation to 

 their diameter, than in the new genera, and, in this cha- 

 racter, more like those of Crocodiles. Those alone who 

 shall rediscover the original, if it still exists, will be able 

 to inform us whether the other characters respond to those 

 referred to.' 



Professor Owen inquired at the British Museum, to 

 which the collections formerly belonging to the Royal 

 ty of London were transferred, but he stales that no 

 specimen corresponding with the account and figures 

 given by Messrs. Wooller and Chapman exists in that 

 museum. 



But a second specimen of a Crocodilian with a long and 

 slender nose was procured from the lias near Whitby be- 

 tween Stailhs and Kunswick in 17!H, and a more perfect 

 skeleton was obtained from the alum shale of the li;- 

 mation at Saltwick, near Whitby, in 1H21. Professor 

 Owen states that both these specimens so closely resemble 

 the older fossil in all the points in which a comparison can 

 be established, as to dissipate the remaining doubts as to 

 the nature and affinities of the specimen from the same 

 locality described in Phil. Trait*., 17-X. He then refers 

 to the figures of the skeleton discovered in ls-^4, in Young 

 and Bird's (li-n/'i^ii-n/ Hurny nf l/ir Yorkshire Coast, and 

 in Dr. Buckland's Bri't^fn-olrr 7V/-.///.V [('UOCODII.K, vol. 

 \iii., p. 1(3!)]. observing that it is now preserved in the 

 museum at Whitby, where he closely examined it. In 

 this specimen,' says the Professor, 'arc preserved the cra- 

 nium, wanting the snout, the whole vertebral column, the 

 libs, ami the principal parts of the four extremities, to- 

 gether with the dorsal and part of the ventral si 

 dermal bones. The entire length of the skeleton, follow- 

 ing the curvature of the spine, is lift ecu feet six iiu ! 

 which may be added tw inches for the lost 



snout. The cranium posteriorly is broad, depressed, and 

 square-shaped: it begins : : anterior to the orbits, 



and gradually assumes the form of the narrow depressed 

 snout ; the converging sides of the maxilla? arc concave 

 outwardly. The zygomatic spaces are quadrilateral, 

 longer in the axis of the skull than transversely: the 

 orbits are subcircular; they look upwards and slightly 

 outwards; their margins are not raised, and their inter- 

 space is slightly concave. The parietal bone is relatively 

 longer than in the Gavial, and sends up a longitudinal 

 median crest, from the posterior part of which a strong 

 process extends on each side outwards, anil curves slightly 

 backwards parallel with the ex-oc-cipitals, to join the ma-~- 

 toid and tympanic bone*, tin- latter of which expands as 

 it di-si-cnil, to form the joint for the lower jaw.' 



;.'or Owen then gives details of the dimension*. 

 from which he calciilal, -, that the entire length of the 

 kkhll mut have exceeded 4 feet inchoo. He states that 



the cranium of one of the < 'at n Ti Vo>aui i measures :t feel 

 1 inches, whence Cu.icr calculates the entire length of 

 thr animal at near 15 \ remarks that 



the W|-itl>\ 'I'elr is with tin- Caen species, and 



differ* from the Cavial in the following particulars : the 

 anterior frontal bone is less extended upon the cl 

 the lacrymal is much more extended, and is laigerat itu 

 and the jugal bone is more slender. The posterior 

 frontal bone, which separates the temporal from the 

 orbital cavities, is much longer and narrower. 'The | 

 tal and occipital crests each form a thin trenchant plate, 

 and are not flattened aho\e. The inastoidean an: 

 not uninterruptedly united with the back ] arti- 



cular prod, of the tympanic; it is separated from it \<\ n 

 large depression, which is overarched by a trenchant 

 belonging to the ex-occipital. The mastoidean bone has 

 a concavity at its descending part, of which there i- no 

 trace in the Gavial. The indentation between the articu- 

 lar process of the tympanic and the tnberosity of the 

 basi-occipital is much smaller than in the Gavial, and the 

 basilar tuberosity projects downwards in a less degree. 

 The pterygoid ala is not expanded externally, as in all 

 crocodiles, but is contracted by a large tissiire at the 

 part when- it is going to unite itself to the bone: the 

 orbital margin of the malar is not raised, and does not 

 leave behind it a deep fissure, as in the Gavial. The 

 malar does not rise to join the posterior frontal bmie : but, 

 on the contrary, the frontal descends to join the malar at 

 the external margin of the orbit. The vacuity between 

 the orbit and the anterior part of the tympanum is much 

 elongated in the fossil, and occupies four-fifths of the 

 temporal fossa ; the anterior part of this fossa is narrow 

 and acute. The columella, or ossicle of the ear, is cylin- 

 drical, and much larger in proportion than in any known 

 crocodile or other reptile. 



'Cuvier calculates the number of teeth in tht' 7 



45- i 



taunts Cadowentis to be 180, viz. - 



The 7V/r..v/- 



45-45* 



nil t'liii,ii'tniii has at least 140 teeth. The Gavial has 



JK 28 

 112, or = The teeth of the Whitbv Teleosaur are 



t$ ~* JM 



as slender and sharp-pointed, but not so compressed as in 

 the Cavial : they correspond with those of the Caen Teleo- 

 saur. and equally illustrate the dental characters usually 

 attributed to the present extinct genus.' 



Professor Owen then shows that the Whitbv Teleosaur dif- 

 fers from the Caen Teleo&aur, as does the Monheim Teleo- 

 Soemmering), in having the 



upper temporal fossa longer in proportion to their breadth, 

 and that it also differs from the Telcosaurs of both Caen 

 and Monheim in the more equal size of the teeth, and 

 from that of Monheim in the greater number of teeth, the 



Teleosatirus prisons having at most .._ ^=106. He also 



points out other differences. 



In treating of the n-rtclini! rnli/mn, the author states 



that the number of vertebni- in the true crocodiles of the 



present period rarely exceeds sixty, the number assigned 



Imn to the crocodile of the Nile. Cuvier. he ob- 



serve-. generally found 7 cervical, 12 dorsal, 5 lumbar. - 



sacral, and :14 c-iudal vcitchr;r. [ntheOocOcA/Utoeicftt*, 



he remarks, a thirteenth pair of ribs is occasionally de- 



veloped. and, according to Plumier, the last-mentioned 



species has two additional caudal vertebra 1 : the alii 



Alligtttiir I.ii'-itis) [CROCODILE, vol viii., p. 1( 



'Iditional ones being in the caudal region : the 

 Oavial has (17 vertebra?, viz. 7 cervical, 13 dorsal, 4 

 lumbar. '2 sacral, and 41 caudal. 



The very perfect specimen in the Whitby Museum,' 

 -.IV- I'rotess'or Owen, 'displays the numberoi' the verte- 

 bnr through the whole spinal column, and estab: 

 another difference between the Teleosaur and the Gavial, 

 the former having a number of vertebra' intermediate be- 

 tween the Crocodiles and Gavials, \i/. (U. with a special 

 peculiarity in the excess of costal vertebra', as the follow- 

 ing formula indicates. \ iz.. 7 cervical. 16 dorsal, 3 lumbar, 



.1, :i caudal. In all subgcncia of existing i 

 diles. as in the extinct tertiary species, the hind surface 

 of the vertebra i- convex, the lore surface concave, ex- 

 cept in the alias and two -;ui:il M-itcbni 1 . Cuvier, who 

 had the opportunity of seeing only the annular part 

 (neurepophyses) of the cervical vertebrae of the Caen 



