506 Arf/iur Smith Wood/card — Britinh Fossil Crocodilia. 



The teeth of the " Swanage Crocodile,"^ and Mantell's specimens 

 from Tilgate Forest, being remarkable for their thick and stunted 

 shajDe, the original type-species was named G. crassidens.'^ A second 

 form, described by Hulke and Owen in 1878,'^ is known as G. simiis, 

 Owen, and it is to this that the magnificent skeletons from Bernissart 

 may be referred : the teeth are more slender than in the first-named 

 species and the head apparently less tapering. 6r. tenuidens is the 

 name given by Owen/ in 1879, to a fragmentary mandible from the 

 Middle Purbecks of Durdlestone Bay, and indicates a small form, 

 characterized by the slenderness of its teeth; and four vertebrae, from 

 the Wealden of Ouckfield, are figured in Owen's " British Fossil 

 Eeptiles " ^ — though not described — under the name of G. carinatus. 



The Middle Purbecks of Durdlestone Bay have also yielded an 

 interesting series of remains of "Dwarf Crocodiles," some of which 

 are undoubtedly referable to the same family. They were described 

 by Sir Richard Owen^ in 1879, and distributed among three new 

 genera, termed respectively Nannosuchus, Brachydectes, and Therio- 

 snclius, and considered to indicate about four species. 



Nannosuchus graciUdens is founded upon the skull and mandible ; 

 but associated vertebrae, scutes, and portions of limb-bones are also 

 known. The second genus — with its two species, B. major and 

 B. minor — is indicated by mandibular rami, particularly remarkable 

 on account of the very small proportion of the jaw bearing teeth. 

 Brachydectes (" short-biter "), however, is a name preoccupied by 

 Cope, in 1868,'' for a Carboniferous Labyrinthodont, and it will, 

 therefore, be necessary to substitute a new term. It may not be 

 inappropriate to suggest the generic title of Oweniasuclius, employing 

 the name of one to whom we owe the earliest definite information 

 regarding British Fossil Crocodiles, and so many contributions to 

 the subject that have subsequently appeared. 



The remains of Theriosuchus piisillus include not only the skull 

 and mandible, but also a nearly complete skeleton, and its osteology 

 is thus comparatively well known. M. L. Dollo has suggested^ that 

 it may possibly belong to his newly determined family of Bernis- 

 sartidfe ; and if this view prove correct, the fact of its dorsal scutes 

 being apparently on the Goniopholis plan — in two rows, with peg- 

 and-socket articulation — instead of following the plan of Bernissartia, 

 will become of especial interest. 



^ G. A. Mantell, « Wonders of Geology," 3rd edit. (1839), vol. i. pp. 387-389, pi. i. 



- R. Owen, Brit. Assoc. Reports, 1841, p. 69. Further details are given in 

 Owen's " Mon. Foss. Rept. Weald, and Purb. Form.," Suppl. viii (Mon. Pal. Soc, 

 1878), pp. 1-6, pis. i.-iv. ; and Mr. Willett's Wealden skull, described by Mr. Hulke, 

 loc. cit., is regarded as probably belonging to this species. 



•' Memoirs in Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. and Mon. Pal. Soc. already quoted. 



* R. Owen, "Mon. Foss. Rept. Weald, and Purb. Form.," Suppl. ix. (Mon. Pal. 

 Soc, 1879), p. 2, pi. i. fig. 1. 



* 0]}. cit. pi. 14 (CrocodUia). 



6 R. Owen, "Mon. Foss. Rept. Weald, and Purb. Form.," Suppl. ix. (Mon. Pal. 

 Soc, 1879). See also Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxxv. pp. 149-J52, pi. ix. 



■' E. D. Cope, "Synopsis of the Extinct Batrachia of JS^orth America," Proc. 

 Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1868, p. 214. 



" L. Dollo, loc. cit. p. 335. 



