Arthur Smith Woodward — British Fossil Crocodilia. 505 



related to the oldpi* Teleosaurs, appear to have been hitherto described 

 in Britain. HylcBochampsa vectiana, Owen,^ is founded upon the 

 hinder portion of a small (young ?) skull — discovered by the Rev. 

 W. Fox, M.A., in the Wealden beds of the Isle of Wight— and its 

 precise affinities are somewhat uncertain. Petrosuchus levidens, Owen,^ 

 is a Purbeck species, determined upon the evidence of a fragmentary 

 skull and mandible from Swanage, and also rather problematical in 

 its affinities : it is regarded, however, as intermediate between the 

 long- and short-snouted types. 



The first of the broad-faced forms that received a name was that 

 constituting Owen's genus GoniophoUs,^ and, though, little was known 

 of it at first, the original species has subsequently proved to have so 

 many congeners, that it is now found convenient to group them all 

 together in a family termed GtONIOPHOLid^ ; * Mr. Hulke, indeed, 

 ventured, a few years ago,^ to regard their peculiarities as justifying 

 the erection of a new suborder, Metamesosuchia, but the advisability 

 of such a procedure has lately been called in question.^ 



Goniopholis — so named, in 1841,' in allusion to the rectangular 

 form of the (dorsal) scutes — was founded upon a number of detached 

 teeth discovered by Dr. Mantell in the Wealden of Tilgate Forest, 

 and upon a large portion of a skeleton from the Purbeck Beds of 

 Swanage, which also exhibited one or two dental fragments of a 

 similar type. Subsequent discoveries in the Wealden of Sussex, and 

 the Purbecks of Dorset, have contributed further to elucidate the 

 genus, adding two new species, and the recent fortunate acquisition 

 of almost complete skeletons from the celebrated Wealden strata of 

 Bernissart in Belgium, seems destined to supply nearly all deficiencies 

 in our knowledge of its osteology. The skull was not made known 

 ■until 1878, when Hulke ^ (followed, in the case of one specimen, by 

 Owen ^) was able to describe all its more salient features : and it is 

 only about two years since Dollo ^^ gave an outline of the general 

 skeletal characters as revealed by the Belgian examples. 



1 R. Owen, " Monograph of the Fossil Reptilia of the Wealden and Pm-beck 

 Formations," Suppl. vi. (Mon. Pal. Soc. 1873). 



'^ E. Owen, "Mon. Foss. Rept. Weald, and Purb. Form." Suppl. viii. (Mon. 

 Pal. Soc, 1878), p. 10, pi. vi. 



^ R. Owen, " Report on British Fossil Reptiles, Part II." Brit. Assoc. Rep. 1841, 

 p. 69. 



* L. Dollo, "Premiere Note sur les Crocodiliens de Bernissart," Bull. Mus. Roy. 

 Nat. Hist. Belgique, vol. ii. (1883), p. 334. 



^ J. W. Huike, " Note on two Skulls from the Wealden and Purbeck Formations, 

 indicating a new Sub-group of Crocodilia," Quart. Joui-n. Geol. Soc. vol. xxxiv. 

 (1878), p. 381. 



« L. Dollo, loc. cit. p. 329. 



'' R. Owen, Brit. Assoc. Reports, 1841, p. 69. 



8 J". W. Hulke, paper already cited, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxxiv. pp. 

 377-381, pi. XV. It should be added, that Prof. Huxley previously described a 

 portion of an indeterminable crocodilian skull from the Wealden of Brook, Isle of 

 Wight, in his paper of 1875, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxxi. p. 432, pi. xix. 

 fig. 3 : these later discoveries indicate its probable reference to Goniophnlis. 



'^ R. Owen, " Monograph of the Fossil Reptilia of the Wealden and Purbeck 

 Formations," Suppl. viii. (Mon. Pal. Soc, 1878), p. 7, pi. v. 



1° L. Dollo, note already quoted above. 



