1870.] HULKE EEPTIIJAN FOSSILS PEOM GOZO. 29 



2. Note on some Eeptilian Fossixs from Gozo. 

 By J. W. HuLKE, F.R.S., F.G.S. 



These fossils were collected by the late Captain Strickland, and for- 

 warded by Mrs. Strickland, for examination and description, to Mr. 

 Busk, who intrusted me with them for this purpose, informing me 

 at the same time that they came from Gozo, the Gauda of Strabo, 

 an island adjoining Malta, reputed miocene. 



As one of the fossils indicates, I believe, a new crocodile, and 

 the other, if Gozo be really miocene, if the jaw actually came 

 thence, and if my determination should prove correct, shows the 

 survival of an Ichthyosaurus to a much later period than that of the 

 upper white chalk, the most recent formation in which any remains 

 of this genus have yet been found, they seemed to me worthy of 

 being brought under the notice of this Society. 



ICHTHYOSATTRtrS GATIDENSIS. 



The fossil which I venture to refer to the genus Iclithyoscmrus is 

 the symphysial part of a long slender mandible. The front end is 

 wanting ; and the rami have also been broken off just behind the 

 symphysis. In its present mutilated state it measures 9 in. long, 

 1*2 transversely in front, and 2'1 at the posterior limit of the 

 symphysis. Its outer surface is trans- 

 versely gently convex, smooth, and finely Fig. 1. — Tooth oilchthyo- 

 wxinkled longitudinally. The upper sur- saurus gaudensis. 



face presents a smooth narrow median 

 tract, in front greatly convex trans- 

 versely, behind slightly concave in the 

 same direction, mesially divided by the 

 symphysial suture, in which posteriorly 

 the splenial element is discernible. This 

 is bordered externally by a line of shallow Natiiral size 



tooth-pits, separated by low transverse 

 ridges, the outer ends of which ascend a short distance on a low 

 parapet formed by the slightly higher outer edge of the dentary 

 bone. Most of the pits are empty; and their smooth surface shows 

 the absence of any firmer bond of union than the gum between the 

 teeth and the mandible. 



The teeth are conical, the crown is slightly compressed, its trans- 

 verse section elliptical ; the fang is simple, of a bulbous figure, its 

 exterior is smooth, its base sKghtly contracted and rounded. The 

 principal tissue is a simple tubular dentine, in the crown covered 

 by a thick enamel, while in the fang it is enveloped by a stout 

 capsule of cementum. A pulp-cavity rises through the fang for some 

 distance into the crown. A minute plug of spar fills its upper end ; 

 and its lower end encloses a little mass of osteo-dentine, which is 

 continuous, through the contracted basal end of the cavity, with the 

 external cementum. 



