FROM SOUTH AFRICA AND AUSTRALIA 127 
Woodward, the latter of whom, being present when I gave a short 
description of the African fossil to the Society, was struck with its 
resemblance to the skull in the British Museum. 
Bothriceps Australis.—In the Australian fossil (Pl. XXII. [Plate 8] 
fig. 1) the bony matter has almost wholly disappeared from the roof 
of the skull, except near the occiput, where a patch of it remains in 
the supraoccipital region, and is sculptured like the corresponding 
part of a Crocodile’s skull, exhibiting irregular close-set, but separate, 
polygonal pits. The cranium measures four inches in length, from 
the extremity of the snout to the end of the occipital condyles, and 
its greatest breadth between the ends of the mandibular suspensoria is 
32 inches; the greatest depth of the skull is at its posterior end, and 
does not exceed 1} inch, so that it is very flat (fig. 2). The margins 
of the left orbit are much broken; but those of the right orbit seem 
to be nearly entire. It is oval, with its long axis directed forwards, 
nearly parallel with that of the skull; it measures {ths of an inch in 
breadth, ths of an inch in width, and it occupies as nearly as possible 
the middle of the space between the superior margin of the occiput 
and the anterior edge of the premaxilla. The interorbital space 
appears to have measured about an inch in width. The posterior 
margins of the large rounded nasal apertures are distant about #ths 
of an inch from the anterior margin of the orbits ; and the interspace 
between the nostrils is about half an inch. 
The surface of the matrix exhibits impressions of the sutures 
which separated the constituent bones of the skull. Two nasals, two 
large frontals, and a single or double parietal are clearly traceable in 
the middle line. The middle of the anterior half of the parietal region 
is marked by a strong longitudinal depression, which occupies nearly 
one-third of its width, and ends, posteriorly, in the parietal foramen, 
while anteriorly it is continued forwards, becoming shallower, on to 
the frontals. The postfrontal bounds most of the inner and a little 
of the posterior margin of the orbit, while almost the whole of the 
remaining posterior boundary is filled up by the postorbital bone. 
Posteriorly and externally, this joins the squamosal ; while posteriorly 
and internally, a bent sutural line separates it from a bone which is 
called “squamosum” by Von Meyer, Archegosaurus, and “second 
parietal” by Professor Owen in Lrachyops. This bone and_ the 
squamosal unite posteriorly with a pyramidal bone which resembles 
in form and position the bone called “occipital externe” in Fishes 
by Cuvier. The exoccipitals project for half an inch below the 
occipital foramen, to form the two stout occipital condyles, which 
have unfortunately been sawn through. 
