354 FAUNA ANTIQUA SIVALENSIS, 



former one, siiowing the alveoli and some of the teeth, as far 

 back as the 10th, on each side of the maxillaries. A more 

 j)erfect resemblance to the living animal than this could not 

 weU be conceived ; and it moreover establishes, in the absence 

 of a connected beak and skull, that the fossil animal had 

 precisely the same number of teeth vrith the living species. 

 The suture connecting the mtermaxillaries with the maxil- 

 laries is fortunately strongly marked in the fossil ; the 

 posterior j)oint of the sutui-e occurring opposite the ninth 

 tooth, exactly as it does in the existing animal. The teeth, 

 the form of anterior extremity of muzzle, the outer nasal 

 aperture, with the lower indentations, correspond in every 

 way ; and, to descend still further to minutiae, at the com- 

 mencement of the suture connectmg the intermaxillaries and 

 maxillaries, at a point in the former bone immediately in 

 front of the sixth tooth, is a small hollow or indentation; 

 this hoUow exists in the same situation and bears the same 

 form in our fossil Gharial. 



Of the lower jaw we have only an imperfect fi'agment of 

 the two branches connected at the commencement of the 

 symphysis ; fi'om the extreme hardness of the crystalline 

 rock in which it is embedded we are unable to see further 

 than that the angle of these branches corresponds with the 

 existing animal, a point however which is proved by the 

 fragments of skull which are in our j)ossession, and which, 

 imperfect as they are at the muzzle extremity, show dis- 

 tinctly the commencement of that tapering form which is 

 peculiar to the Gharial of the present rivers. 



In volume v. of the ' Ossemens Fossiles,' Cuvier, in re- 

 capitulatuag the pecviliarities and differences between the 

 Crocodiles and Gharials, says of the latter : ' Les ptery- 

 goidiens forment au-dessiis des palatins des especes de 

 grosses vessies renflees et ovales de la grosseur d'un oeuf de 

 poule, au lieu d'une simple voute cylindrique comme dans 

 les crocodiles et les caimans,' &c., and then, ' Je n'ai point 

 observe cette vessie dans le petit Gavial, mais je suppose 

 d'autant plus qu'elle est un produit de I'age, que dans les 

 vieux crocodiles des Indes cet endroit est beaucoup plus 

 renlle que dans les jeimes.' 



These demi-cylindrical swelliags are highly developed in 

 the 10 feet 5 inches specimen, of which the measurements 

 have been given ; whereas in the smaller and younger 

 animal, measuring 8 feet 8 inches, there is no appearance 

 of them ; the sphenoid portion lying under the palatine and 

 extending up to the anterior frontal's apophysis, in a flat 

 uninflated laminated bone. From the little difference that 

 exists between the bones of the Gharial and of the Crocodile, 



