CROCODILES. 53 



and became modified to form a broad, much- 

 compressed cylinder, whilst the fore-arm and 

 wrist are still more strikingly changed. In the 

 former, instead of a pair of moderately long 

 and stout rods, we find a pair of greatly ex- 

 panded plates ; whilst the latter, instead of being 

 made up of a series of small bones, is represented 

 only by one large and one small quadrangular 

 plate. The thumb has undergone the same 

 flattening process, the first joint or metacarpal 

 bone forming a broad semilinear plate instead of 

 a slender rod ; the second joint or first phalanx 

 being similarly modified, but in a less marked 

 degree. The four fingers have undergone little 

 or no change. During life the whole of this 

 limb was completely invested by the skin, like a 

 hand which is thrust into a fingerless glove. 

 The accompanying illustration will show at a 

 glance, not only what this transformed hand 

 looked like, but how great a change it has 

 undergone when compared with the limb of a 

 modern crocodile. 



The hind-limb, though less profoundly changed, 

 is yet conspicuously modified. The thigh-bone 

 is relatively of enormous length, being as long 

 as the shank and foot combined. The latter has 

 retained only a vestige of the fifth toe, whilst 

 the bones of the first or great toe have, like the 

 thumb, become greatly flattened. They differ, 

 however, from those of the thumb in that their 

 length greatly exceeds their breadth. During 

 life this limb appears to have served the purpose 

 of a long oar. 



The body of the Crocodiles, like that of other 



