Yol. 6s.~] SKELETON OF GOXIOPHOLIS CBASSIDEKS. 63 



' . Discussion. 



Dr. Smith Woodward congratulated the Author ou his first 

 contribution to the Society's Proceedings. -It was an illustration of 

 the importance of local collectors for the progress of Palaeontology. 

 Although the remains of Goniopholis crassidens were among the 

 commonest of Wealden fossils, the precise characters of the species 

 had remained unknown, until the discovery which the Author had 

 now described. The new observations were of all the greater value, 

 because the Goniopholidee represented an entirely-new departure in 

 the evolution of the Crocodilia at the end of the Jurassic Period ; 

 and biologists needed an exact knowledge of the skeleton of these 

 reptiles, before they could discuss the meaning of the development 

 in question. The late Sir Richard Owen thought that the first 

 appearance of alligator-shaped crocodiles, such as Goniopholis, was 

 correlated with the incoming of warm-blooded quadrupeds and birds, 

 which would form a new kind of prey. 



Mr. E. T. Newton remarked on the interest of this specimen, in 

 that it supplied for the first time the skull of Goniopholis crassidens, 

 which species had. been established chiefly on the peculiar form of 

 the scutes. The skulls that Hulke had described in 1878, one 

 of which he thought might belong to G. crassidens, were now 

 shown to be quite different, and would both be included in the 

 species G. simus, one of them having been so named by Owen. He 

 alluded to the fact (first recognized by Huxley, and later on by 

 Hulke) that the position of the posterior nares, far back upon 

 the palate, in these Wealdeu crocodiles was an intermediate one 

 between those of the Lower Jurassic crocodilians, in which these 

 openings were farther forward, and those of the Tertiary croco- 

 dilians, where, by the closing-over of the pterygoids, the nares 

 came to be placed on the hinder aspect of the skull, as in recent 

 crocodiles. 



Dr. C. W. Andrews congratulated the Author, both on his good 

 fortune in finding such valuable material, and on the paper that he 

 had read. The chief interest of the specimen described seems to be 

 that it completes our knowledge of Goniopholis crassidens, and 

 shows that that species is in several respects intermediate between 

 G. simus and the modern Crocodilia. Indeed, some of the characters 

 distinguishing it from G. simus seem to be of sufficient importance 

 to justify the separation of the latter species as a distinct genus. 



The Author, in reply, said that he agreed with the last speaker 

 that the characters of the nasals, palatines, and supratemporal 

 fossse were perhaps sufficient to separate the other described species 

 from the genus Goniopholis ; but, as the teeth of all the specimens 

 agreed in possessing serrations and lateral carinas — the characters 

 laid down by Owen, he thought that it was better to leave them as 

 they were for the present, rather than to multiply genera. The 

 Author returned thanks for all the kind remarks that had been 

 made in regard to his paper and his work. 



