ORDER CROCODILIA. 1191 



socket in the adjacent scute ; an arrangement very similar to that 

 obtaining in the scales of certain Ganoid fishes. The genus Gonio- 

 pholis is very characteristic of the Wealden and Purbeck, and has a 

 cranium of moderate length, with the nasals not reaching the nares, 

 and the orbits rather smaller than the supratemporal fossae. The 

 type species attained very large dimensions, and was long since 

 made known to the world by the late Dr Mantell, under the name 

 of the Swanage Crocodile ; its blunt and grooved teeth, and charac- 

 teristic scutes, being comparatively common in the Wealden stone 

 quarries of Sussex. This genus has been recently recorded from 

 the Jurassic of North America, where it had been previously de- 

 scribed as Amphicotylus. Allied but considerably smaller forms 

 from the Dorsetshire Purbeck constitute the genera Na7inosuchus 

 and Oweniasuchus (Brachydectes). The most specialised genus, 

 however, appears to be the minute Theriosuchus of the Purbeck, 

 which, in having the orbits slightly larger than the supratemporal 

 fossae, approximates to the next subfamily, although retaining the 

 pegged dorsal scutes of Goniopholis. The nasals in this genus reach 

 and partly divide the nares, as in the true Crocodiles ; and we thus 

 have a comparatively close approximation to existing forms, which 

 is rendered still more manifest by the members of the next group. 



In the genus Bernissartia, of the Belgian Wealden, which forms 

 the type of the subfamily Bernissartiincz, the skull is comparatively 

 short and broad, and has the posterior nares placed very close to 

 the occipital condyle ; while the orbits are decidedly larger than the 

 supratemporal fossae. Like existing Crocodiles, these reptiles were 

 provided with more than two longitudinal rows of dorsal scutes 

 (which have no peg-and-socket) ; while their ventral buckler is un- 

 divided, and has the transverse rows of scutes imbricating throughout. 

 The resemblance to existing forms being completed by the pectoral 

 limbs being considerably shorter than the pelvic pair. The verte- 

 brae, however, still retained the primitive amphiccelous character. 

 It seems probable, from the position of the posterior nares, that the 

 imperfectly known genus Hylceochampsa, from the English Wealden, 

 is a closely allied form of rather larger dimensions ; and it is not 

 unlikely that certain proccelous vertebrae from the same formation 

 which have been described under the name of Heterosuchus maybe- 

 long to this form ; while others from the Cambridge Greensand and 

 the Greensand of Austria, which have been referred to Crocodilus, 

 may also indicate allied reptiles, although there is a possibility that 

 the owners of these vertebrae belonged to the next series. It will 

 thus be seen that if Hylceochampsa, or an allied form, had such pro- 

 ccelous vertebrae, it would only require the development of palatal 

 plates to the pterygoids to convert it into a Crocodilian of the 

 modern type ; and it is highly probable that such a form once ex- 



vol. 11. u 



