NOTES Br HUGH MILLEE, 



OK A SUITE OP FOSSILS ILLUSTRATIVE OP THE STRUCTORE AND 

 RELATIONS OP THE EARLIER GANOIDS.* 



{A Lecture delivered before the Royal Physical Society.) 



We find it stated by Cuvier, in his description of the gene- 

 ric peculiarities of the alligator, that the fourth tooth of the 

 under jaw, reckoning from the symphysis, instead of being 

 received into a mere notch, as in the crocodile, or into the 

 interstices of the opposite teeth, as in the gavials, has a cavity 

 hollowed for its reception, when the mouth is closed, in the 

 upper maxilliary bone. Agassiz remarks a somewhat simi- 

 lar peculiarity in the lepidosteus, — a peculiarity that seems 

 to form one of the links which connect this extraordinary- 

 fish, unique in the present creation, with its relatives of 

 somewhat higher place and standing, the reptiles. " The 

 intermaxillary of the lepidosteus," says the distinguished 

 ichthyologist, " is a small bone, pierced with two holes for 

 the admission of the anterior projecting teeth of the lower 

 jaw" 



It is a circumstance worthy of notice, as bearing direct on 

 our subject, that there is a considerable degree of irregularity 

 manifested in the dentition of this reptile-fish. Occasionally 



* The suite of fossils here described is now in the University of 

 Edinburgh.— L. M: 



