390 PEOCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [JunC 23, 



3. Notes on some Eossil Remaiists of a Gavial-liice Saurian from 

 KiMMERiDGE Bat, colUcted hy J. C. Mansel, Esq., establishing 

 its identity with Cuviee's Deuxieme Gavial d'Honfleue, Tete a 

 •museau plus court (Steisteosaueus eosteo-minoe of Geopfeot St.- 

 Hilaiee, 1825), and with Qfenstedt's Dakosatjeits. By J. W. 

 HuLKE, Esq., E.E.S., E.G.S. 



[Plates XYII. & XVIII.] 



The fossils which form the subject of this note consist of part of a 

 lower jaw, with teeth and vertebrse, imbedded in hard pyritic clay- 

 stone, lent me by J. C. Mansel, Esq., and of parts of the upper and 

 lower jaws, with several teeth in situ and loose, portions of verte- 

 brae and of ribs, a femur, and some other bones, which, owing to 

 their fragmentary and crushed condition, I have not been able to 

 identify, in the British Museum. 



As received from Mr. Mansel, the bones in the British Museum 

 were nearly hidden in large masses of very hard stone containing, 

 as is usual in Kimmeridge fossils, much pyrites, which made it very 

 difficult to extricate them ; but this has been successfully accom- 

 plished, and the severed pieces have been very skilfully joined by 

 Mr. Davies, to whom I am glad to take this opportunity of express- 

 ing my obligation for much valuable assistance. 



Description — Upper Jaw. — Of this the British Museum has the 

 extreme end of the snout, comprising the symphysis, with about 4 

 inches of both intermaxillae, forming the antero-lateral boundary of an 

 undivided terminal nostril, which has a laterally compressed oval 

 form, and is not swollen at the sides as in the living Gavials and in the 

 extinct Teleosaurs, The oval nostril is indented in front by a 

 slightly overhanging, medial, tubercular production of the symphysis. 

 A thin seam of stone marks the open intermaxillary suture. The 

 outer border of the upper surface of the portions of the intermaxillse 

 bounding the nostril makes a blunt ridge with the nearly vertical 

 outer surface, from which the upper surface slants in-wards and 

 downwards to the inner surface ; and this latter slants downwards 

 and outwards, so as to overhang the floor of the nostril, with which 

 it makes an angle of rather more than 45°. 



The alveolar border of the right intermaxilla has been laid bare ; 

 it contains three alveoli ; and the hard palate has been traced to 

 within '9 inch of the symphysis, which shows that the palatine 

 processes of the intermaxillaries subtend the greater part of the nostril, 

 and that the prepalatine foramen is proportionately lessened, a point 

 of resemblance to the living Gavial in which this latter differs from 

 crocodiles proper. The outer surface of the intermaxillae bends 

 evenly outwards and backwards from the symphysis. There is not 

 any indication of a notch for the passage of the fourth tooth ; and, 

 as far as I can judge from this fragment, the snout tapered regu- 

 larly, ending bluntly. 



There is another fragment, 5J inches long, which belongs, per- 

 haps, to the upper maxilla. It contains five alveoli, four of which 

 include portions of teeth. The outer surface is moderately convex ; 



