WEALDEN FORMATIONS. 



Species — Goniopholis simus, Ow. Plate V. 



This species is founded upon the entire skull, minus the lower jaw, imbedded in the 

 limestone of the Swanage quarry, of which skull a reduced view of the upper surface is 

 given in PI. V, fig. 1 ; and of so much of the under surface (ib., fig. 2) as could be 

 brought to light by exploratory operation on that part of the imbedding slab. 



The skull in its general shape corresponds with the broad-faced species of the 

 Proccelian Crocodiles j 1 and in the festooned contour of the alveolar borders, with those 

 having teeth of uneqal size, and with a crown of mainly the proportions of the teeth in 

 the present Amphiccelian genus. 



The conclusion conveyed by the latter expression is not, indeed, based upon the 

 discovery of vertebras in such contiguity with the present skull as to support an infer- 

 ence as to their having formed part of the same skeleton ; but it is a probable one from 

 the association of such vertebras with the foregoing nearly allied species o"f Goniopholis ; 

 and such probability is strengthened by the nature of the cranial modifications by which 

 the skull under review differs from those of the Proccelian species most nearly resembling 

 it in shape. 



The temporal vacuities (ib., fig. 1, t) are relatively larger than in Crocodilus proper, or 

 broad-faced Proccelians, and are subquadrate in form. The palatonaris (ib., fig. 2, n) is 

 not only larger, but is more advanced in position, so as to come wholly into view on the 

 bony palate, and on the same plane therewith ; and here, moreover, they receive for 

 completion of their anterior contour, the hinder ends of the proper palatine bones (ib., ib. 

 20), three fourths only of the border being contributed by the pterygoids (ib., ib., 24). 

 The Eustachian aperture (ib., ib., e ) is likewise on the palatal, not the occipital, plane. 2 



In these characters is manifested the nearer affinity of the Purbeck Crocodilian to the 

 Amphiccelian Teleosaurs 3 than any Tertiary or modern genus presents. 



The following are amongst the modifications of minor import in the skull of the 

 present species of Goniopholis. The external nostril (PI. V, fig. 1, n), horizontal in position, 

 is more nearly terminal than in modern Crocodiles, or than in Goniopholis crassidens 

 (PL I, fig. 2, n). It is formed by the premaxillaries exclusively; the nasal bones 

 terminating about an inch behind the nostril. In Proccelian Crocodiles a graduated 

 series of developments of the nasal bones may be traced. They may be short, as in 

 Gavialis gangeticus, or extend to near the nostril, as in Crocodilus cataplir actus, rather 

 nearer in Crocodilus intermedius, still nearer in Crocodilus Hastingsice, be produced close 



1 Cuvier, ' Ossem. Foss.,' torn. cit. 



2 'Phil. Trans.,' mucccl, pi. xi, fig. 1 e. 



3 lb., p. 522. 



