CORYPHODON, OR LOPH1ODON. 807 



jaw : the summit of the crown has been abraded, and the 

 posterior part (<?) excavated by the action of the su- 

 perior canine upon it, during the lifetime of the animal. 

 The general proportions of this tooth, its degree of cur- 

 vature, and the relative length of the crown and the fang, 

 accord pretty closely with those of the canines of different 

 species of Lophiodon figured by Cuvier in the ' Ossemens 

 Fossiles, 1 1822, torn. ii. pt. 1. pi. x., figs. 3 and 12. pi. ix., 

 fig. 1 1 . The crown must have projected but a small dis- 

 tance beyond that of the adjoining teeth, and have been 

 quite concealed by the lips, as in the Tapir, not forming 

 a projecting tusk, and being shorter and thicker than the 

 canine of a carnivorous quadruped. Like the canine of 

 the Lophiodon tapiroides in pi. ix. of the volume cited, the 

 growth of the present tooth was completed and the fang 

 terminated by an obtuse solid extremity : but it differs 

 in the fang being less expanded ; it is at no part so thick 

 as the base of the enamelled crown : in this respect it 

 resembles more the canine of the Lophiodon medius, torn, 

 cit., pi. x. fig. 12, but the crown of the present tooth is 

 proportionally more expanded at the base. The propor- 

 tions of the crown more nearly resemble those in the Lo- 

 phiodon Isselanus, pi. x. fig. 3 ; but the fang is ventricose in 

 that species, as in the Lophiodon tapiroides. Cuvier does 

 not give a figure of the transverse section of the crown of 

 the canine in any of his specimens : that of the present 

 tooth, (fig. 105, c) is very characteristic, and resembles the 

 transverse section of the crown of the teeth of the great 

 extinct reptile called Pliosaurus ; the outer surface being 

 nearly flat, and the rest of the crown so convex as to de- 

 scribe a semicircle : a ridge of enamel along each border of 

 the flattened side separates it from the convex side of the 

 crown. The Mammalian nature of the tooth is established 



x 2 



