264 
FOSSIL CROCODILES 
slightly concave at both extremities. It may, 
perhaps, be observed that in the animals of this 
tribe, the epiphyses of the bones are cartilaginous 
in the young individuals, and that this circumstance 
may, in some instances, have given rise to this 
appearance ; and we have ourselves remarked, 
among some detached crocodilian bones, sent by 
Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles to the College of 
Surgeons, vertehrm destitute of the convex articu- 
lating face, from this cause. But this character is 
too constant in the fossil vertebral to he the result 
of such a circumstance, and can only have been 
produced by original conformation. The vertebra? 
are more contracted in the middle than those of 
the recent species, and are generally more or less 
compressed laterally. The caudal vertebras, as in 
all the other lacertm, are, of course, by far the 
most numerous. 
Bihs Many of the ribs found in the Tilgate 
beds are decidedly those of crocodiles, presenting 
that double or bifurcating termination, so peculiar 
to the animals of the crocodilian family. 
Bones of the extremities. — These, for the most 
part, occur in so mutilated a state, that but few 
examples can be identified with certainty : we have 
jiortions of the humerus, radius, and tibia. 
Carpal and Metacarpal hones These resemble 
the bones of mammalia, and, in fact, cannot be 
readily distinguished from them : we have many 
examjiles, which, from their slightly deju'essed form, 
there. is reason to conclude belonged to crocodiles. 
Os front is We have reserved for this ])lace, a 
notice of a small bone (fig. i. Plate II.) which, im- 
