198 PROF. OWEN ON A THERIODONT REPTILE 
that “‘ there is no tooth in either upper or lower jaw resembling a 
canine by superiority of size” (ib. p. 26). But as every tooth was 
implanted by a contracting and basally closed root, without a trace 
of having been assailed by a successional tooth, of which, as a cavity 
of reserve, there was no trace, I concluded to leave the Procolophons 
with the Theriodonts ; nor do I know yet where better to place them 
in the rapidly expanding Reptilian class. 
The addition to that class which is now brought before the Society 
may be characterized as follows :— 
Order THERIODONTIA. 
Genus TrranosvucHus. 
5—5 | 1-1 esi 
20) 0: = 2 q0=10 br =I 
Species Titanosuchus ferow. 
The skull is shown by the portions of maxillz with the alveoli of 
the molar series to have been shorter and deeper than in Gorgonops ; 
the mandible at its symphysial end was thicker in proportion to its 
depth than in Tigrisuchus, Cynosuchus, and Galesaurus. The degree 
of correspondence with those eminently carnivorous genera in every 
comparable character supports the inference that the crowns of the 
incisors, canines, and molars presented the same destructive lania- 
riform character in the present gigantic representative of the order. 
The breadth of the crown of the largest incisor in Titanosuchus 
ferox is six times that of the largest incisor of Lycosaurus curvimola*. 
If the crown of that tooth was laniariform in Z%tanosuchus as in 
Lycosaurus, its length may have exceeded 3 inches. The breadth of 
the base, or of the root near the base, of the upper canine in T%tano- 
suchus is three times that of the corresponding tooth in Lycosaurus, 
and the length of the crown would be not less than 4 inches. 
This tooth in 7itanosuchus was less compressed than in Cynodracoy, 
was of a stronger build, fitted for overcoming greater resistance. 
We have, in fact, in Ttanosuchus a carnivore of a more carnassial 
type than the Machairodus or other Felines; for there is not even 
an exceptional tubercular or grinding-tooth of any size; and I feel 
entitled to hazard this negative proposition on the grounds on which 
the fossil is referred to its order. It most probably found its prey 
in the huge contemporary Pareiosaurs, Oudenodonts, and Tapino- 
cephalans of its South-African locality. 
Dental character :-—i. 
* Catalogue, ut supra, p. 71, pl. xviii. 
Tt Quart. Journ, Geol. Soc. vol. xxxii. pl. xi. figs. 2, 3. 
