516 



GET ACE A. 



DELPHINIUM. 



Fig. 213. 



Skull of thick-toothed Grampus. Fen, Lincolnshire. 



PHOO^ENA CRASSIDENS. Thick-toothed Grampus. 



THE most complete example of the skeleton of a Ceta- 

 ceous animal which, by the alteration of the osseous tex- 

 ture, and by the peculiar configuration of the bones, 

 claims to rank with the British Fossil Mammalia, is that 

 which was discovered in the year 1843 in the great fen 

 of Lincolnshire beneath the turf, in the neighbourhood of 

 the ancient town of Stamford, and which is now preserved 

 in the Museum of the Stamford Institution. 



The skull (fig. 213), which is almost entire, and the 

 teeth, some of which are preserved in the lower jaw, prove 

 the animal to have belonged to the Dolphin tribe (Del- 

 phinida), and to the short-jawed or Porpoise genus (Pho- 

 cana), and herein to be comparable in point of size with 

 the Round-headed Porpoise (Phocana melas), the Grampus 

 (PTioc&na orae), and the Beluga (Phocana leucas). 



It differs sensibly from the skull of the Beluga by its 

 concave profile, and by its greater breadth in proportion 



