PEOP. OWEN OX THE SKULL OP MEGALOSAFRPS. 339 



fracture in a degree similar to the fore end of the right ramus, I 

 conclude that not more than an extent of two or three inches is 

 wanted to complete that end. The oblique fracture of the bone 

 here exposes the hollow base of the crown of a functional tooth ; and 

 on its inner side is the partially calcined germ of the successor. 



The inner surface of the ramus (fig. 2) is flatter and smoother than 

 the outer. It is traversed by a deeper, narrower, and better-defined 

 longitudinal groove — partially divided at its hinder half by a low 

 linear ridge, indicative of the groove having been traversed by two 

 impressing soft parts, probably a nerve as well as a vessel. The 

 main groove becomes shallower and wider as it advances, inclining 

 from the middle to near the lower border of the inner surface. Part 

 of the suture between the splenial (31) and dentary (32) elements 

 is here seen. 



The teeth indicated in the portion of the left ramus have been 

 more or less broken away, but answer in number and relative 

 position to the entire ones in the right ramus. The tooth rising to 

 fill the space between the first and second is more advanced ; and 

 on the inner side of the present fragment are seen the crown-tips 

 of other successional teeth, appearing at the inner side of the base 

 of preserved portions of the fully developed teeth. At the intervals 

 of these rising teeth are seen the " series of triangular plates of 

 bone (6, 0, fig. 2), forming a zigzag buttress along the interior of 

 the alveoli, and from the centre of each triangular plate the bony 

 septum which crosses to the outer parapet and thus completes the 

 alveolus," well described in the type example *. 



As respects the dental characters exhibited in the present series 

 of fossils, I find nothing to add to the discoverer's original and 

 graphic descriptions and to the supplementary details afforded by 

 the more complete mandible and teeth in the private collection of 

 the Duke of Marlborough at Blenheim f. In the restoration of the 

 skull I have been guided by that of the largest existing carnivorous 

 land-lizard (Varanus giganteus); and it may prove that the post- 

 orbital part of the skull is somewhat too short in the Cut, p. 340. 

 Moreover the present fossils impress me with the notion that they 

 have come from a rather smaller individual than those yielding the 

 subjects of the under-cited plates J. But on these data and subsequent 

 materials I estimate the total length of the skull of Megalosaurus 

 Bucklandi not to have exceeded 2 feet 6 inches ; they certainly do 

 not support that of "four or five feet " ascribed to it by Professors 

 Phillips and Alleyne Nicholson. 



The opportunities of supplementing the original indication of 

 the great extinct carnivorous Saurian having been few and far 

 between, may condone the details above recorded of the additional 

 elements toward its restoration here submitted. 



I conclude with some general remarks to which their study, in 



* Buckland, loc. cit. p. 395, pi. xl. fig. 1. 



t ' History of the British Fossil Keptiles,' 4to, vol. i. pp. 348-352. 



\ Ibid. Diuosauria, pis. 24-32. 



