64 The Alligator and Its Allies 
of the bone. Between these foramina and the 
base of the teeth are four rounded depressions to 
receive the points of the first four teeth in the lower 
jaw; of these depressions the first and fourth are 
the deepest. The first pit often becomes so deep 
as to perforate the bone; this is true also with 
the crocodile and, according to Reynolds, with the 
caiman, but is not true of the gavial, whose inter- 
locking teeth project outside of the jaws. It will 
be remembered that one of the chief distinctions, 
given early in this work, between the crocodile 
and the alligator is that in the former the fourth 
tooth in the lower jaw fits into a notch and not into 
a pit in the upper jaw. 
The maxilla (2), which with its fellow forms most 
of the hard palate, has also been mentioned in 
connection with the dorsal aspect. Each maxilla is 
notched, posteriorly, to form the anterior border 
of the posterior palatine vacuity, and together 
they are notched to receive the rectangular ante- 
rior ends of the palatines. The postero-lateral 
extremity of the maxilla articulates with the trans- 
palatine. Along the outer border of the bone are 
the teeth, of which there are fifteen or sixteen in the 
alligator, about the same number (perhaps one or 
two less) in the caiman and crocodile, and about 
twenty-four in the gavial. The first or anterior 
eight or ten teeth have individual sockets, the rest 
are placed in a groove. In the crocodile none of 
the teeth have individual sockets, and in the gavial 
