508 Arthur Smith Woodivard — British Fossil Crocodilia. 



remarkably satisfactory character, and include fine cranial specimens 

 in an excellent state of preservation. 



The first notice of a Crocodile from the London Clay of Sheppey 

 was by Baron Cuvier,^ who based his determination upon a detached 

 cervical vertebra ; an imperfect skull was subsequently discovered 

 by Mr. Spencer, in 1831, and figured by Buckland ^ under the 

 name of G. Spenceri ; and in 1850, the Palasontographical Society 

 published an exhaustive monograph by Prof. (Sir Eichard) Owen,^ 

 which embraced an account of all the fossil remains of this order, 

 from British Eocene deposits, at that time available. With the 

 exception of a brief, but valuable contribution to our knowledge of 

 the Hordwell species, by Prof. Huxley,* no further additions to the 

 literature of the subject seem to have been made since the ap- 

 pearance of this classical memoir ; and the subsequent discoveries of 

 crocodilian remains in the same beds have apparently afforded no 

 evidence of any new specific form. 



Among the Sheppey fossils, two species are indicated not merely 

 by the skulls, but also by numerous portions of the vertebral 

 column ; there is, however, no very definite information as yet con- 

 cerning the rest of the skeleton, and isolated fragments of limb-bones 

 and dermal scutes are the only remains hitherto forthcoming for 

 study. To one of these species Sir Eichard Owen gives the name 

 of G. Toliapicus, regarding a fine skull and mandible in the British 

 Museum as the type ; and describes the second species as C. champ- 

 soides, upon the evidence of another cranial fossil, likewise preserved 

 in the National Collection. In regard to Buckland's C. Spenceri, 

 founded in 1836, the Professor displays some hesitation, and eventually 

 declines to recognize the priority of the name by expressing doubts as 

 to the possibility of determining the precise relationship of Spencer's 

 less perfect fossil to the more complete specimens under description.^ 



A series of crocodilian vertebrge, obtained by Mr. Frederic Dixon, 

 from the Lower Eocenes of Bognor, Sussex, probably belongs to 

 C. Toliapicus, Owen ; ^ and science is indebted to the labours of the 

 same indefatigable investigator of Sussex fossils for the discovery 

 of undoubted fragments of a Gavial in the Bracklesham Beds. Sir 

 Eichard Owen' has described the latter under the name of Gavialis 



^ G. Cuvier, " Ossemens Fossiles," 2nd. edit. (1824), vol. v. pt. ii. p. 165. 



2 Eev. W. Buckland, "Geol. and Min." 2nd edit. (1837), vol. i. p. 251 ; vol. ii. 

 p. 36, pi. 25', fig. 1. 



^ R. Owen, " Monograph of the Fossil Eepfcilia of the London Clay," Part II. 

 (Mon. Pal. Soc, 1850). 



* T. H. Huxley, " On the Dermal Armour of Crocodilus Hastingsim,'''' Quart. 

 Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xv. (1859), pp. 678-680, pi. xxv. 



^ On this curious method of solving the difficulty, see the remarks of Dr. Leon 

 Vaillant, " Etude zoologique sur les Crocodiliens tossiles tertiaires de St.-Gerand le 

 Puy," Biblioth. I'Ecole Hautes Etudes, vol. vi. pp. 10, U. It may be added, that 

 this memoir contains valuable information respecting European Tertiary Crocodilia 

 described before its date of publication (1872). 



6 E. Owen, "Mon. Foss. Eept. Lend. Clay," pt. ii. p. 36. See also Dixon's 

 " Geology of Sussex," 1st edit. p. 207, pi. xv. figs. 1, 2 ^2nd edit. p. 253, pi. xv. 

 figs. 1, 2), in which Sir Eichard Uwen names it " 6'. Spenceri, Buckland," 



■^ E. Owen, op. cit. p. 46, pi. x. Also F. Dixon, op. cit. 1st edit. p. 208 (2nd 

 edit. p. 253). 



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