AMERICAN AMPHICCELIAN CROCODILES g 



vacuity on the parietal and "mastoid" bones is of doubtful specific 

 value, as one, I think, will be assured from the comparison of 

 different skulls of modern crocodiles. 



The teeth, as figured by Dr. Holland, are not unlike those of 

 Goniopholis tenuidens Owen.^ That the specimen belongs in the 

 genus Goniopholis I have little or no doubt — at least there appears 

 to be less difference between our species and certain European 

 ones, than between the known European species. No procoelous 

 vertebras have ever been found in the Morrison beds, nor indeed 

 any from below the Upper Cretaceous in any part of the world, 

 unless the vertebrae figured some years ago by Seeley from the 

 English Wealden are truly crocodilian in nature.^ I cannot agree 

 with Dr. Holland in the belief that the arrangement of the bones 

 on the under side of the cranium of his specimen is like that of 

 the modern crocodiles. The under part is somewhat injured pos- 

 teriorly, as stated by Dr. Holland, and as I can corroborate from 

 an examination of this specimen, the whole of the false palate 

 back of the maxillae wanting. We have no reason to assume, 

 however, that the structure here differs materially from that of the 

 GoniophoHdidae in the boundaries of the posterior nareal openings; 

 if it does agree with the modern crocodiles in this respect, it would 

 of course remove the form from the GoniophoHdidae and substanti- 

 ate another generic appellation. 



Of the four specific names that have heretofore been given to 

 the goniophoHdids from America, the three based upon specimens 

 from the Morrison beds may all be valid, and it is not at all 

 improbable that they represent more than one species ; but, so far, 

 we have no conclusive evidence that such is the case. 



I may add that crocodilian teeth are widely distributed in the 

 upper Morrison horizons, as also in the Comanche deposits of western 

 Kansas. 



Coelosuchus reedii, genus and species new. 

 Recently I have received for examination, from the University of 

 Wyoming, through its curator of paleontology, Mr. William Reed, 

 the remains of a large amphiccelian crocodile, evidently of a brachy- 



1 Owen, British Fossil Reptiles, Vol. I, p. 642. 



2 Seeley, Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, 1887, p. 212. 



