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fossil Remains of an Animal. 
The circumstance of the lower jaw extending backwards 
beyond the skull, and there being an appearance of small 
conical teeth contained within the large ones, led me to believe 
that the skull belonged to a species of crocodile ; but this con- 
jecture was readily proved to be erroneous by an examination 
of the intervertebral joint, which is an oval cavity, only met 
with in fishes. The spinous process of one of the vertebrae 
which is preserved, shews that the fish was not of the family 
of sharks or rays. 
As no fishes that I am acquainted with, have the young 
teeth growing up in the cavities of the old ones, it became ne- 
cessary to ascertain whether these teeth were really of that 
description. This was done by splitting one of them, and its 
cavity was found to contain calcareous spar, in appearance 
only resembling a young tooth ; the characteristic mark there- 
fore of crocodile's teeth, which had at first been so very im- 
posing, was thus removed. 
Upon examining the mode in which the lower jaw is con- 
nected to the skull, there appears to have been no regular 
joint, as in the crocodile, but a long intermediate flat bone, as 
in many fishes. 
The sclerotic coat of the eye being composed of bone, is a 
character of the eye of fishes, and not met with in the croco- 
dile. In this animal there is a subdivision into thirteen plates, 
which is only met with in birds. 
The situation of the nostrils, one of which is tolerably dis- 
tinct, corresponds with those of fishes. 
The mode of articulation of the lower jaw with the skull, 
admits the mouth to be opened to a great extent ; in this re- 
spect it resembles what is met with in the voracious fishes, of 
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