CRETACEOUS FORMATIONS. 45. 



from the Chalk-pits of Sussex, in my friend Mr. Dixon's Geology of the Tertiary and 

 Cretaceous Deposits of that County, Tab. XXXVII, figs. 10, 11, and 12. One of the 

 finest and most characteristic teeth of this genus was discovered in the Chalk, during 

 the cutting of the Brighton and Lewes Railway : it is figured in T. IX, A, figs. 6 and 6*, 

 and is now in the fine Collection of Henry Catt, Esq., of Brighton. 



Order.— Ci20C0Z>/Z/^. 



Genus. — Crocodilus ? Tab. XV. 



In the Museum of Mr. Saull, F.G.S., there is a small block of green-sand from the 

 County of Sussex, containing several parts of a small, and apparently very young 

 crocodile. The portion of the upper jaw, and of the right ramus of the lower jaw, 

 T. XV, figs. 1 and 2, demonstrate the crocodilian shape and mode of implantation 

 of the teeth, which have thick, subconical, obtuse crowns, and present proportions 

 most resembling those of the Goniopholis crassidens.^ The alveolar border of the jaw 

 has a similar wavy outline, and so differs from that in the Gavials and Teleosaurs, in 

 which the alveolar border is straight. The sockets of the teeth, which are distinct at 

 the anterior half of the jaws, run together at the posterior half, as in the Alligators 

 and the young Crocodiles of the existing species. Several bony scutes are preserved, 

 as, e. g., at ss fig. 3 ; none of which show the tooth-like process at one angle, which 

 characterises many of the scutes in the Goniopholis : and as there is not a single 

 centrum, or body of a vertebra to give the characters of the articular ends of that 

 part, I am unable at present to determine the species. The femur, 65, is longer and 

 more slender in proportion to the ischium, 63, than in the Nilotic or Indian Crocodiles : 

 and the tibia, %&, and fibula, 67, are longer in proportion to the femur. This species 

 evidently had the hind legs proportionably more developed than in existing Crocodilia, 

 and better adapted for swimming, — a character which is observable in the Teleosaurs 

 and some other Crocodiles of the secondary formations. At the same time it should be 

 remembered that, in the Green-sand Formations of New Jersey, vertebrae of two species 

 of Crocodiles or Alligators have been discovered by Professor Henry Rogers, con- 

 structed on the same procajlian type as those of existing species. See ' Quarterly 

 Journal of the Geological Society,' January, 1849, p. 380, pi. x. 



* Report on British Fossil Reptiles, Trans. Brit. Association, 1841, p. 69. 



