ii 
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44: PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
to two types—one Megalosaurian, the other Iguanodont. Their 
great interest, as the author observes, consists in their being the 
most recent evidences of the Dinosaurian subclass in geological 
time. 
It would be a felicitous circumstance were the publication of this 
paper by directing attention to the occurrence of such fossils in the 
Maestricht beds to lead to the discovery of less imperfect remains 
which might afford fuller information respecting the above genera, 
and in particular regarding Orthomerus Dolloi, described by the 
author *. 
Personally, it was to myself a matter of great satisfaction that the 
description of the Maestricht fossils should have been undertaken by 
Prof. Seeley. I had long since studied them with the: intention of 
bringing them under the Society’s notice, and I am glad to find that 
my delay in so doing has resulted in their being discussed by so able 
a paleontologist. 
In a paper read on the 25th April by Sir R. Owen, “ On the Skull 
of Megalosaurus,” we have an account, worthy of that anatomist, of 
an imperfect premaxillary, a nearly complete maxillary, and some 
mandibular fragments referable to this genus. ‘These remains, which 
had a short time previously been obtained from blocks of sandstone 
quarried for building a school near Sherborne, afford additional in- 
formation respecting the structure of the Megalosaurian cranium, 
the orbital and occipital regions of which continue, however, un- 
known. The maxillary bone is the most perfect yet discovered. 
The author gives a reconstruction of the skull on the pattern of 
the Varanus giganteus, the largest living carnivorous Lizard. His 
figure bears a close general resemblance to that in Phillips’s 
“Geology of Oxford’ (Oxford, 1871, p. 199), but differs from this 
in some details. A discussion of the affinities of Reptiles and Birds, 
expressing, as it does, the mature views of so eminent a biologist, 
gives to this paper a value quite distinct from that which accrues 
from its immediate subject. 
I may add that the number of teeth in this Sherborne pre- 
maxillary, 3-3, agrees with that in a pair of Megalosaurian pre- 
maxillaries preserved in the private collection of Mr. James Parker 
at Oxford. These indicate the distinctness of the premaxillaries 
from the maxillaries, respecting which a doubt was once expressed, 
and also their individual separateness. They show also the presence 
of an outer or lateral, and an inner or mesial ascending process, 
points in which they resemble the premaxillaries of Jguanodon and 
Hypsilophodon. For the opportunity of seeing his unique collec- 
tion of Megalosaurian remains some years since, and for his recent 
courtesy in affording me an opportunity of examining mandibles of 
two species of this genus with reterence to the presence of a pre- 
symphysial bone, I am glad to seize this occasion to offer Mr. James 
Parker my warmest thanks. 
In Sir R. Owen’s restoration of the skull of Megalosaurus the orbit 
* M. Dollo has very recently most obligingly forwarded to me a “‘ Note” on 
Dinosaurian remains found in the Upper Chalk of Belgium. 
