AND ON THE EVOLUTION OE THE CROCODILIA, 437 



he remarked that in teaching Indian geology he had been much 

 struck by the homotaxis of the strata above the Indian Coal-bear- 

 ing beds and those containing Stagonohpis in Scotland. In the 

 Trias of India a Parasuchoid Crocodile was associated with Hypero- 

 dapedon, and a Dicynodont gave an African facies to the fauna. 

 He thought the history of the evolution of the Crocodilia would 

 have to be worked out in India, but remarked that none were 

 known there between the Trias and the Sewalik deposits. He 

 inquired of Prof. Huxley whether there was any alliance between 

 Stagonohpis and Parasuchus, and what had been made out with 

 respect to the structure and analogies of the latter genus. He con- 

 sidered that the case established by Prof. Huxley with regard to the 

 Crocodiles furnished a stronger support to the hypothesis of evolution 

 than even that of Hipparion and the Horse. 



Mr. Evans remarked that the paper was a most interesting and 

 important contribution to the literature of evolution. Keferring to 

 the differences in the position of the nostrils, he suggested that it 

 would be a great gain if these could be correlated with differences 

 in the mode of life, as thus we should probably acquire some clue 

 to the causes of the successive modifications of the type. 



Prof. Seeley saw no ground for doubting the value of Prof. 

 Huxley's conclusions with regard to Stagonohpis, but thought it 

 might be for the advantage of science to have other ways of looking 

 at the evolution of the Crocodilia. He was not inclined to believe 

 that the characters of the base of the skull, which Prof. Huxley had 

 dwelt npon, afforded ground for a subdivision of the Crocodilian 

 type — not only because he thought the character insufficient in 

 itself among Reptiles, but because he did not believe that the cha- 

 racters of the older group were in any way Lacertilian. He spoke 

 of the great range both of osteological character and vital organiza- 

 tion in the existing Lacertilia, which rendered it difficult to know 

 exactly to what the author specially referred ; and he pointed out 

 that the Lacertilians were surviving types from which Stagonohpis 

 could not be supposed to have descended, unless the Lacertilian 

 type had remained unchanged, and the Crocodilian type had alone 

 been developed. Hence, seeing the numerous Lacertilian characters 

 in the limbs of Chelonians, he inquired of the author whether he 

 would not be disposed to consider the few Lacertian features of 

 Stagonohpis as due to the conditions of existence rather than as 

 resulting from descent. 



Prof. Huxley, in reply, stated that the Indian Crocodile (Parasu- 

 chus) was very like Belodon in the jaw and teeth, the scapula and 

 coracoid, the vertebras, the ilium and the tibia. The tibia had the 

 proximal end like that of a Lizard, the distal like that of a Crocodile. 

 Additional remains from India furnish a new point of resemblance 

 between the Indian deposits and those of Elgin. "With regard to 

 the difference in the position of the nostrils, he did not know that 

 any reason could be given for this, unless the modification might 

 facilitate respiration when the animal was engaged, after the manner 

 of Crocodiles, in drowning its prey ; but this would not hold good 



