76 CROCODILIA. 



B. AMPHICCELIAN SERIES. 



Vertebrae usually amphicoelous t . Pterygoids without palatal 

 plates ; lateral eustachian passages not bony. Dorsal scutes keel- 

 less, and usually arranged in two rows ; ventral buckler, which is 

 usually divided but may be single, with not more than eight or ten 

 longitudinal rows of scutes, each scute consisting of a single element. 

 Acetabular margin of pubis slightly notched. 



Family GONIOPHOLIDIM], 



Orbit communicating with infratemporal fossa, and either larger 

 or only slightly smaller than supratemporal fossa ; no preorbital 

 vacuity; in palate posterior border of premaxillae interpenetrated 

 by maxillae. Dorsal scutes rectangular, and arranged in two or 

 more rows : ventral buckler either single or divided, with the scutes 

 imbricating anteriorly, and either imbricating or articulating by 

 suture posteriorly. Freshwater. 



Subfamily Bernissartiin ^e. 



Posterior nares placed very far back. Typically the dorsal scutes 

 without peg-and-socket articulation, and arranged in more than two 

 rows; ventral buckler undivided, with the scutes imbricating 

 throughout. 



In the type genus Bernissartia, Dollo 2 , the vertebrae are am- 

 phicoelous ; the orbit is larger than the supratemporal fossa ; the 

 nasals reach the nares ; the splenial enters into the mandibular 

 symphysis ; and the pectoral limb is much shorter than the pelvic. 



Genus HYLiEO CHAMPS A, Owen 3 . 



Imperfectly known : orbits considerably larger than supratemporal 

 fossae ; cranium of moderate length. Possibly the proccelous ver- 

 tebrae, to which the name Heterosuchus (p. 74) has been applied, 

 may prove to belong to the present genus, in which case there will 

 be no doubt as to the distinctness of Bernissartia 11 . 



1 As mentioned above, Heterosuchus may belong to this series ; and the same 

 may be the case with the procoelian vertebrae described from the Greensand of 

 Cambridge and Austria under the names of Crocodilus cantabrigiensis (p. 75) 

 and C. proavus. 



2 Bull. Mus. R. Hist. Nat. Belg. vol. ii. p. 321 (1883). 



3 Wealden and Purbeck Replilia (Mon. Pal. Soc), suppl. vi. p. 1 (1874). 

 1 See Geo!. Mag. dec. 3, vol. iv. pp. 310,. 392 (1887). 



