EARLY REPTILIAN FOSSILS. 81 



of the teeth, together with that position of the 

 breathing apertures near the end of the snout 

 which we see in crocodiles, for the purpose of 

 allowing them to drag their prey under water 

 without ceasing to respire. With regard to the 

 lacertilia, we have this same fish-like biconcave 

 form of the vertebra;, and the same fish-like 

 arrangement of the teeth, equally arguing that 

 alliance to the lower vertebrate class which it is 

 the pleasure of this hardy critic to deny, — the 

 biconcave structure of the reptiles, showing, as Mr. 

 Owen himself owns, that these animals, which the 

 Edinburgh reviewer deems so utterly separated 

 from fish, had probably " a more aquatic, if not 

 marine theatre of life,^''* than was assigned to their 

 successors. In subsequent and present reptiles, 

 this form is superseded by the ball and socket, or 

 concavo-convex form ; but it is remarkable that, in 

 the embryo state, the frog and crocodile (if not 

 others) exhibit the double hollow fonn still re- 

 sembling in this respect the mature animal of the 

 secondary rocks. Such is the actual character 

 of reptiles which our critic would set up as high : 

 he has, after this, oidy to speak of the annelid as 



* On the Reptilian Fossils of South Africa. Geological Trans- 

 actions, Feb. 1S45. 



e3 



