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XXXI1 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
In his paper on the so-called nummulite limestone of Alabama, 
Mr. Lyell cites the opinion of Professor K. Forbes and Mr. Lonsdale 
that the supposed nummulites were in reality zoophytes, referable to 
the genus Orbitolites. Professor Forbes observes that the Orbitolites 
complanata of the Paris tertiary series is very nearly allied to the 
American fossil (Nummulites Mantelli), and that the Orbitolites 
elliptica of Michelin (from Nice) and that author’s Orbitolites 
Pratti are nearly-allied species. He refers also to disciform bodies 
discovered by Mr. Beete Jukes in Australia, in great numbers 
upon marine plants resembling Zostera, and when dead in great 
abundance in mud from various depths under seventeen fathoms, 
considering them as belonging to the same generic group with the 
tertiary Orbitolites. Mr. Lyell also quotes the opinion of M. d’Or- 
bigny that the American specimens sent to him are referable to his 
genus Orbitoides, one nearly allied to Orbztolina. In consequence 
of these determinations Mr. Lyell concludes that the fossil in ques- 
tion will henceforth be known as Orbitoides Mantelli, retaining the 
specific name first given to it by Dr. Morton. As Orbitolites have 
been frequently taken for nummulites, the strict determmation of 
them is important geologically. 
Our colleague Professor Owen has presented us with an account of . 
the fossil remains of mammalia referable to the genus Paleotherium, 
and to two genera, Paloplotherium and Dichodon, hitherto unde- 
fined, from the Eocene sand of Hordle, Hampshire. He is led to 
suspect that the species of Palezeothere represented by a lower jaw 
and teeth may be distinct from the Paleeotherium medium of Cuvier, 
while the distinctive position of another lower jaw is more doubtful, — 
and he consequently registers the Hordle fossils provisionally under 
the name of Paleotherium medium. After describing in great detail 
the specimens which have afforded him the data for the genus Palo- 
plotherium, carefully comparing them with all that is known respect- 
ing allied forms, Professor Owen notices a subject of much interest 
with respect to the entombment of some of these mammalian remains. 
He states, after mentioning the effects of force on a head of Paleo- 
theritum due to pressure before the rock in which it was inclosed had 
hardened, that there are other marks of violence, as if a crocodile had. 
seized the animal, a young one, for his prey, the skull exhibiting 
marks as if produced by two distinct bites, the head having been 
turned half round between them. ‘“ At all events,” he observes, 
*it is plain that the violence inflicted upon the head of this young 
pachyderm has been received before the skull became imbedded in 
the eocene mud, and that the matiix hardening around it has pre- 
served the evidence of the nature of the mjuries received to this day. 
The points of the great canine teeth of old crocodiles,” he adds, 
*“not unfrequently become so blunted as would produce such crushed 
and depressed fractures without penetrating more deeply.” 
To the extinct crocodile the remains of which are common in the 
same beds in which the Paleeotherium was found, Professor Owen 
assigns the name of Crocodilus Hastingsie. He afterwards presents 
us with a detailed account of the teeth and lower jaw of an extinct 
