1837.] Notice of a fossil Batrachian. 539 



bones having undergone a severe compression, most probably at the 

 moment the animal perished. 



The general appearance indicates beyond doubt the animal hav- 

 ing belonged to the third great class of vertebrata, the reptiles : the 

 difference however in the formation of the skulls of the Chelonians 

 and Saurians renders these two orders quite out of question. The for- 

 mation and structure of the teeth, the separation of the lower jaw in 

 the middle afford certainly characteristics of the Ophidians ; Mr. 

 Frinsep indeed was led by these very circumstances when he examin- 

 ed the fossil in its original state, with only the anterior part of the 

 jaws exposed, to suppose them belonging to a serpent*. The clearing 

 of the matrix however soon shewed the total difference from several 

 skulls of serpents, as represented in the Regne animal, which animals 

 however have the two above mentioned characteristics in common 

 with the Batrachians. 



With those skulls of recent Batrachians, which I have been able to 

 consult, (represented inCuviEu's Ossemens fossiles, tomeV. 2e. partie, 

 Plate XXIV.) the present one disagrees particularly in the formation 

 of the intermaxillary bone situated rather over, than between the 

 maxillary, the branches of which are immediately united in the middle, 

 covered by the arches, extending to both sides, assisted by two slender 

 apophyses, which are fixed to the skull between the parietal and the 

 anterior frontal bones. 



The rounded profile of the upper and lower jaw afford in their general 

 appearance a characteristic of the Batrachians, in some of which — the 

 frogs, the jaw, generally speaking the upper, is provided with minute 

 teeth, corresponding in form and distribution with those of the fossil. 



The separation at the symphysis, the wide arch of the lower jaw, 

 the excavation of the inner surface, in short the development of this 

 bone, serving for insertion of the tongue and muscles, which solely 

 perform the function of inspiration, exhibit phenomena exclusively 

 repeated in the recent Batrachians, to which order I am thus induced 

 to look upon the extinct owner of the present skull as closely allied. 



Cuvier characterises the frogs (Rana, Laurenti) by their being 

 furnished by a row of small teeth in the upper jaw, and an interrupted 



* It was the supposition of its being a serpent's head that led to my placing 

 ^e fossil in the hands of Dr. Cantor, whom I knew to have paid particular at- 

 tention to this department of natural history. Colonel Colvin, when it was 

 still half hidden by matrix imagined it to belong to the Lacertce. It was at his 

 suggestion that I attempted to clear it and examine its peculiarities, which he an- 

 ticipated would be found of high interest. — Ed. 



