8 FOSSIL REPTILIA OP THE 



to the aperture as in Crocodilus champsoides, penetrate a short way into the aperture, as 

 in Crocodilus suchus, or, by continuous ossification of the septum in old individuals of 

 Crocodilus nirjer and Alligator lucius, extend seemingly across the nostril. These 

 characters, barely of specific value, have been used in the fabrication of genera of existing 

 Crocodiles and Alligators, 1 in all of which the orbits are larger than the upper temporal 

 apertures. 



In Goniopholis simus the orbits (PI. V, fig. 1, o) are rather smaller than the apertures 

 (ib., ib., t). 



Each pterygoid (fig. 2, 24,) articulating by a crenate suture with the narrow hind end of 

 the palatine (ib., 20), which diverges from its fellow to form the fore part of the palatonaris, 

 loses vertical thickness and gains in breadth as it extends backward. It there articulates 

 by a tract of an inch in length with the basisphenoid. The Eustachian canal (ib., <?) opens 

 at the midspace between the basisphenoid and basioccipital. The latter arches down in 

 advance of the condyle, and the venous foramen is conspicuous on this tract. 



As the pterygoids are relatively less than in the Proccelians, so the palatines are 

 relatively larger, especially in anterior breadth. After contributing their share to the 

 palatonaris, they come into contact and the medial suture is continued forward to an 

 extent of 3 inches 5 lines. The anterior breadth of the pair is 3 inches 4 lines. The 

 medial suture of the palatal plates of the maxillaries was traced forward two inches or 

 more in advance of the palatines, and laterally the plates were exposed to the same 

 breadth as the palatines proper. The palato-maxillary suture, 20'— 21', is strongly 

 sigmoid, describing as it leaves the midline a convexity forward and then a concavity. 

 It was not thought expedient to endanger the unique specimen by further excavation in 

 reference to the comparatively unimportant premaxillo-maxillary palatal suture. 



The bony palate, as far as it was exposed, is smooth ; the upper surface of the skull 

 is rugose and pitted. The pits are circular or subcircular, from 1 to 2-| lines in 

 diameter, situated chiefly on the swollen sides of the maxillaries and on the cranial part 

 of the skull, including the expanded upper and outer surface of the squamosals ; and the 

 tympanic pedicles are smooth, and terminate in the usual transversely extended concavo- 

 convex articular surface. 



The tooth called " anterior canine " is preserved, somewhat mutilated, in each 

 premaxillary. Sockets of smaller premaxillary teeth are faintly traceable. The tooth 

 termed " posterior canine " projects from the anterior part of the outswollen and 

 convex border of the maxillary. Prom portions or traces of the other teeth or sockets 

 I estimate that there were from sixteen to eighteen teeth on each side of the upper jaw. 

 In the largest and least mutilated crowns of these teeth the dental characters of the genus 

 Goniopholis are shown. 



In the 'Catalogue of the Osteological Series, Mus. Coll. Surgeons,' 4to, 1853, 

 p. 164, is described the specimen No. 752, as " The skull of a Crocodile from Bengal, 



1 'Trans. Zool. Soc.,' vol. vi, p. 125. 



