Tertiary.] PALAEONTOLOGY OF VICTOKIA. [Mammalia. 



PLATE LXIX. 

 ZIPHIUS (DOLICHODON) GEELONGENSIS (McCoY). 



[Genus ZIPHIUS (Cuv.). (Sub-kingd. Vertebrata. Class Mammalia. Order Cetacea. 

 Sub-order Odontoceti. Fam. Physeteridae. Sub-fam. Ziphiinse.) 



Gen. Char. Skull with a long, slender, edentulous beak or rostrum, abruptly expanding 

 between the orbits, behind which the premaxillaries and maxillaries rise with the frontal to 

 form a projecting wall, concave above and towards the front, the middle portion of which, 

 formed of the premaxillaries and nasals, arches forward to overhang the nostrils. Lower jaw 

 with usually one pair of lateral teeth near the anterior end, larger or only visible in the males. 

 Blow-hole single, crescentic ; a small falcate dorsal fin ; pectorals small ; caudal broadly 

 emarginate. Sub-gen. Dolichodon (Gray), mandibular pair of lateral teeth, with a small enamelled 

 denticle, elevated on upper end of a greatly elongated bony, strap-shaped fang, often over- 

 arching the upper jaw.] 



DESCRIPTION. Tooth : Strap-shaped shaft or fang-, with moderate pulp cavity 

 at upper rounded end ; opening 1 towards outer side ; general form, moderately com- 

 pressed, nearly straight in the longitudinal direction (not laterally incurved), 

 moderately arched upwards and backwards, slig-htly widening towards the base, 

 which is very obliquely truncated with obtusely rounded ends. Pulp fissure at base, 

 rather nearer to the convex than the concave face, and nearer to the side towards 

 which the pulp cavity at base of denticle on upper end of fang opens than the other ; 

 laterally compressed ; surface with irregular longitudinal grooves and pores. Length 

 along convex face, nearly 10 inches ; along concave face, about 6 inches j oblique, 

 truncated, basal end, about 2 inches 6 lines ; greatest antero-posterior diameter, 



2 inches 1 line, 1 line less near upper end j thickness, 1 inch near broad end of 

 ovate section (posterior or inferior concave side), half an inch near narrow end 

 (superior or anterior convex side). Length of slit-like lower end of pulp cavity in 

 base of fang-, 5 lines ; width, 1 line ; longitudinal diameter of enlarged pulp cavity 

 near distal end, 9 lines ; transverse diameter, 6 lines ; pulp cavity contracted to 



3 lines in diameter at 3 inches from distal end, and irregularly rounded. 



Professor Owen has made known portions of the snouts of 

 six or seven species of Ziphius from the lower part of the Red 

 Crag of Suffolk, probably a mixture of older Pliocene and Upper 

 Miocene Tertiary, and dwells on the fact that these Cetacean 

 remains are confined to the bottom layer, and are certainly derived 

 by denudation from an older deposit of the age of the " Sable noir '' 

 of the " Systeme Diestien " of Nyst and Von Koenen, of Belgium ; 

 and Van Beneden has described some others from the old " Crag 

 noir," near Antwerp, and several others have been published by 



the Vicomte Du Bus from the Crag of Anvers ; so that the Upper 



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