140 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Jan. 13, 



teeth bite between the inner and outer series of the palato-maxillary 

 teeth. The surfaces of the teeth, however, are not sufficiently pre- 

 served to enable one to make sure of the manner in which the teeth 

 wear. 



Por a number of years I have been acquainted with two specimens 

 from the quarry opened in a Triassic sandstone at Coton End, near 

 Warwick — the one belonging to the Warwick Museum, and the other 

 to the Rev. P. B. Brodie, F.G.S. Each of these is an elongated jaw- 

 like bone, in which are set parallel rows of conical teeth ; and I have 

 often compared them with the palate of Hyperodapedon, but without 

 being able to satisfy myself that I was entitled to draw any positive 

 conclusions from their resemblance. 



In the winter of 1866, however, the Rev. Dr. Gordon sent me 

 several specimens, among which one (belonging to Mr. Grant, of 

 Lossiemouth), though a very much mutilated fragment of a skull, 

 presented part of the characteristic dentigerous bones of the palato- 

 maxillary apparatus of Hyperodapedon ; and my attention was, at 

 once, forcibly drawn to the fact that the opposed faces of two of the 

 rows of the teeth were worn down by attrition against other teeth. 

 These two rows of teeth were placed on opposite sides of a deep 

 longitudinal groove ; and the planes of the worn faces converged to 

 the bottom of this groove. 



On looking at the original specimen, it became clear that this groove 

 corresponded with the depression into which the oral edge of the 

 mandible is received when the mouth is shut. The opposed faces of 

 the palato-maxiUary teeth had been worn flat by attrition against the 

 opposite sides of the mandibular teeth, which work between them 

 as a knife-blade shuts into its handle; and it followed that the 

 dentary margin of the mandible must be worn to an edge adapted to 

 fit into the groove. So far as I know, no other fossil reptile possesses 

 any such peculiarities ; and thus this interesting fragment pre- 

 sented me with new means of distinguishing the teeth and jaws of 

 Hyperodapedon from those of other Reptilia. 



Some time after I had become acquainted with Mr. Grant's new 

 specimen, Mr. Lloyd, E.G.S., was good enough to call upon me for 

 the purpose of showing me some specimens. from the Coton-End 

 quarry before mentioned, which had for many years been in the 

 possession of his father, Dr. Lloyd, long well known for his atten- 

 tion to the geology of Warwickshire. Among these were two bones 

 beset with teeth of the same character as those which I have already 

 mentioned from the same locality, but far more perfect, and pre- 

 senting rows of teeth not only quite like those of Hyperodapedon in 

 form and arrangement, but worn in a precisely similar way ; in fact, 

 when Mr. Lloyd's specimens were placed side by side with Mr. Grant's, 

 there was no resisting the conclusion that they proceeded from ani- 

 mals of one and the same genus, if not species. 



I at once communicated these interesting facts to Sir Roderick 

 Murchison, who refers to them in the following terms : — 



"To such fossil evidence as this the field geologist must bow; 

 and instead, therefore, of any longer connecting these reptiliferous 



