6 MEMOIR ON MOSASAUKUS 



and were by him presented to Prince Maximilian of Wied, who Avas at that time 

 on a tour through the United States. They were carried to Europe, and placed in 

 the Museum of Bonn. 



The rock in which they were found was so hard, that the most valuable parts 

 of the skeleton were separated with difficulty; but nearly the whole head was 

 procured, and many vertebrae, fragments of ribs, and other bones. Excellent 

 figures are given of the head, jaws, and teeth. A figure of a tooth is given in 

 PI. I. Fig. 7. 



In studying the characters of the prominent bones, Goldfuss came to the con- 

 clusion that it is a difierent species from Mosasaurus Hoffmanni, and named it M. 

 Maximiliani, in honor of the prince. 



The state of the teeth and bones indicates that it had attained its adult growth, 

 although it is only one half the estimated length of the former species. In the 

 upper maxillae of both there are eleven teeth, but in the lower jaw of the former 

 there are fourteen, while in the latter there are only eleven ; in the former the 

 lower jaw is curved, while in the latter it is straight ; and in the curve there are 

 eight teeth, while in the corresponding portion of the latter only ten are present. 



He describes the teeth of M. Hojfmanni as having oblong roots, rounded and 

 touching each other, and as being inserted in a groove in the jaw to two thirds its 

 depth ; and the crowns as pyramidal, a little compressed, curved slightly backward, 

 divided by ridges into an anterior and posterior surface having five and seven 

 narrow pyramidal planes on them. PL I. Fig. 1. 



It will be observed that this description differs somewhat from Cuvier's and 

 Owen's account of the teeth, in the divisional ridges, Avhich the sections show, and 

 in the presence of the longitudinal narrow planes. The divisional ridges in the 

 secondary teeth are on the anterior and posterior surfaces, and not on the lateral. 

 This is plainly seen in the young teeth in the New Jersey specimen, (PL I. Fig. 2,) 

 and does not constitute a distinction, as Professor Owen supposed when he founded 

 a new genus Leiodon on this character. Mr. Charlesworth described the same 

 fossil as a Mosasaurus, and called it M. stenodon.* Although the longitudinal 

 planes on the teeth are not mentioned by Cuvier, they may be seen in Faujas St. 

 Fond's plate. 



There were eighty-seven vertebrae of M. Mawimiliani found lying in their 

 proper apposition, measuring thirteen and a half feet long, resembling those of 

 M. Hoffmanyii, having one surface for the rib attachment, and becoming triangular 

 by degrees; with eleven which are plane. The ribs are perfectly round, as if turned 

 in a lathe, and are identical with those of M. Hojfmanni. 



Of the small vertebrae from the Cretaceous of Alabama, figured of the natural 

 size, PL I. Fig. 3, three were originally found anchylosed, though broken before I 

 received the portion figured. They are identical in all their characters with those of 

 Maestricht, except that they are only of about one fourth the size. I have another 

 of similar size from another locality, and have seen several in the possession of others. 



* The Geological Journal, No. I. 



