194 AMPHIBIOUS SAURIANS. 



It would be foreign to our j)rcscnt purpose, to enter intc 

 U niiiiuU^ comparison of ihe usleuiogy of living and fossiJ 

 genera and speeies of this family. We may simj)ly observe, 

 u'ith respect !<» their similar manner of dentition, that they 

 all present the same exami)les of provision for extraordinary 

 expenditure of teeth, by an unusually abundant store of 

 these most essential organs.* As Crocodiles increase to no 

 less Ihan four hundred limes their original bulk, between 

 the period at which they leave the egg and their full matu- 

 rity, they are ]»ruvided with a more fre(iuent succession oi 

 teeth than the mammalia, in order to maintain a duly pro- 

 portioned supply during every period of their life. As the 

 predaceous habits ol" these animals cause their teeth, placed 

 in so long a jaw, to be peculiarly liable to destruction, the 

 same provision serves also to renew the losses which must 

 often be occasioned by accidental fracture. 



The existence of these remedial ibrces, thus uniformly 

 adapted to supply anticipated wants, and to repair foreseen 

 injuries, affords an example of those supplementary con- 

 trivances, which give double strength to the argument from 

 design, in proof of the agency of Intelligence, in the con- 

 struction and renovation of the animal machinery in which 

 such contrivances arc introduced. 



The discovery of Crocodilean forms so nearly allied to 



was lonij and slender, as in the Gavial, tlio teeth, one liundrcd and forty in 

 number, are all small and slender, and |)lnccd in nearly a Ktraij^lit line. 'I'lic 

 heads of two other individuals of the same specieci, found near Whitby, are 

 represented in the same plate. Figs. 2, 3. 



Some of tho ungual phalanges, which arc preserved on the hind feet of 

 this animal, Fig. 1, show that these extremities were terminated by long and 

 sharp claws, adapted for motion upon land, from which wc may infer that 

 the animal was not exclusively marine; from tiie nature of the shells with 

 which they arc associated, in the lias and oolite formations, it is probable that 

 both the Steneosaurus and Teleosaurus irccpienti'd shallow seas. Mr. 

 LycU states that the larger Alligator of the Ganges, sometimes descends be- 

 y.ond the brackish water of the delta into the sea. 



• Tiiis mode of dentition has been already exemplified in speaking of the 

 ^Icntition of the Iclilhyosaurus, P. 13G, and PI. 11. A. 



