48 FOSSIL REPTILIA OF THE LONDON CLAY. 



aussi prodigieusement a celle des os du Crocodile, seulement les apophyses epineuses 

 des vertebres sont plus carrees."* 



With regard to the femur, this bone is more slender in proportion to its length in 

 the Gangetic Gavial, than in the Crocodilus biporcatus or the Alligator lucius, and the 

 anterior convex bend of the shaft commences nearer the head of the bone ; and in these 

 characters the fossil femur from Bracklesham corresponds with the modern Gavial, and 

 differs from the Crocodiles and Alligators, and also from the Crocodilus Hastingsia, of 

 which species specimens of the fossil femur have been kindly submitted to me by the 

 Marchionesn of Hastings and Alexander Pytts Falconer, Esq. The fossil femur of the 

 Gavial from Bracklesham (fig. 9) may therefore be referred, with the utmost probability, 

 to the same species as the portions of jaw, teeth, and vertebrae above described ; and 

 as these clearly demonstrate a species distinct from any known Gavial, I propose to 

 call the extinct species of the Eocene deposits at Bracklesham, Gavialis Bixoni, after 

 my esteemed friend, by whose scientific and zealous investigations so much valuable 

 additional knowledge has been obtained respecting the fossils of that rich, but, previously 

 to his researches, little known locality. 



The tooth represented of the natural size in fig. 10, T. X, was also discovered at 

 Bracklesham, and forms part of the collection of G. Coombe, Esq. It resembles, in its 

 proportions and obtuse extremity, the teeth of the Crocodiles rather than those of the 

 Gavials, and at first sight reminded me of those of the GoniopTiolis or amphicoelian 

 Crocodile of the Wealden period. On comparing it closely with similar-sized teeth of 

 that species, the enamel ridges were more numerous and decided in the Goniopholis ; 

 and the delicate reticular surface in the interspaces of the more widely separated and 

 feebler longitudinal ridges in the Bracklesham tooth was wanting in the Goniopholis. 

 The minute superficial characters of the enamel of the large and strong Crocodilian 

 tooth from Bracklesham, closely agree with those of the Gavialis Dixoni. It is just 

 possible that this may be a posterior tooth of a very large individual of that Gavial, as 

 the teeth become at that part of the jaw shorter in proportion to their thickness in the 

 modern Gavials. If it should not belong to that Gavial, it must be referred to a 

 Crocodile distinct from those species of the secondary strata, or those existing Crocodiles 

 which have teeth of a similar form ; since they present a different superficial pattern of 

 markings on the enamel. 



On reviewing the information which we have derived from the study of the fossil 

 remains of the procoelian Crocodilia, that have been discovered in the Eocene deposits 

 of England, the great degree of climatal and geographical change, which this part of 

 Europe must have undergone since the period when every known generic form of that 

 group of reptiles flourished here, must be forcibly impressed upon the mind. 



At the present day the conditions of earth, air, water, and warmth, which are 

 * Osseraens Fossiles, 4to, torn, v, pt. ii, p. 108. 



