306 PALAEONTOLOGY. 



eocene deposits at Bracklesham occur the remains of the 

 o-avial-like G. Dixoni. In the Hordle beds have been found 

 the C. Hastingsice, with short and broad jaws ; and also a true 

 alligator (C. Hantoniensis). It is remarkable that forms of 

 procoelian Crocodilia, now geographically restricted — the gavial 

 to Asia, the alligator to America, and the true crocodiles to 

 warm latitudes of Asia, Africa, and America — should have 

 been associated together, and represented by species which 

 lived, during nearly the same geological period, in rivers 

 flowing over what now forms the south coast of England. 



Many species of procoelian Crocodilia have been founded 

 on fossils from miocene and pliocene tertiaries. One of these, 

 of the gavial sub-genus (C. crassidens), from the Sewalik 

 tertiary, was of gigantic dimensions. 



Order X. — Lacertilia. 



{Lizards, Monitors, Iguance) 



Char. — Vertebras procoelian, with a single transverse process 

 on each side, and with single-headed ribs ; sacral verte- 

 brae not exceeding two : two external nostrils ; a foramen 

 parietale in most. 



To the present order are provisionally referred, through 

 their close analogy in dentition and in general size to modern 

 lizards, the following genera and species founded on fossils, 

 chiefly jaws and teeth, from the Purbeck beds. No perfect 

 vertebra has yet reached me shewing the procoelian structure, 

 and so related to these fossils as to indicate organic associa- 

 tion. Should such discovery be made, true Lacertians would 

 date from the upper oolitic period. 



In the Ruthetes destructor* Ow., the teeth are attached by 



* Abbreviated from nouthetetes, Monitor; in reference to the resemblance of 

 the teeth of the fossil to those of the modern Varanian Monitors. See Quarterly 

 Journal of the Geological Society, 1854, p. 120. 



