178 PETRIFACTIONS AND THEIR TEACHINGS. CHAP. III. 



Teleosaurus priscus. Wall-case B? The beautiful rep- 

 tilian fossil thus labelled, is entered in the " Museum Synopsis" 

 as " another species of Gavial, (considered as a distinct genus, 

 by H. von Meyer, to wbich he has given the name of JEolo- 

 don,y from the lias at Monheim in Franconia, being the 

 unique specimen figured and described by Soemmering in the 

 Memoirs of the Academy of Munich, as Crocodilus priscus"* 



This specimen is also described by Cuvier (Oss. Foss. 

 tome v. p. 120, pi. VI.) under the name of " Gavial de 

 Monheim" 



It consists of a considerable portion of the skeleton of a 

 reptile about three feet in length, imbedded in a layer of 

 yellowish grey calcareous schist ; the slab having been split 

 asunder (as in the Swanage specimen), each of the exposed 

 surfaces displays portions of the enclosed osseous remains. 

 On the stone there are casts of discoidal shells, the impression 

 of the tail of a small fish, and remains of insects. The 

 quarry whence the specimen was obtained is worked for 

 lithographic stones, and is celebrated for the remains of 

 Pterodactyles, fishes, crustaceans, insects, &c. which we shall 

 notice in the sequel. 



1 The following diagram may assist the visitor in identifying the 

 specimen : 



Top of Case B. 



Teleosaurus, with the four I Cast of Mystriosaurus Egertoni ; 



extremities. from Altdorf. 



In Case B. [2.] 

 Teleosaurus Chapmanni. 



Teleosaurus priscus. 



Hylaeosaurus : vertebral column, from Bolney, Sussex. 

 Hylaeosaurus : from Tilgate Forest. 



2 Indicative of the alternating size of the teeth. 



3 Trans. Academy of Munich, 1814." CROCODILUS PRISCUS. Eostro 

 elongate cylindrico, dentibus inferis alternatim longioribus, femoribus 

 dupla tibiarum longitudine." Soemmering. The description is accom- 

 panied by figures of the natural size, of which 1 have a copy, presented 

 to me by the distinguished author, nearly thirty years since. 



