OF TILGATE FOREST. 
295 
sliort, that but little doubt can be entertained of 
the identity.* The existence of another species ap- 
pears to be establislied by a small frontal bone, 
which, altlioLigh, but 0*5 inches long, and partially 
obscured by the stone to which it is attached, is 
decidedly tlie os frontis either of a Crocodile, 
})i'operly so called, or of an Alligator, and not of a 
Gavial. Plate 2. fig. 1. As it adheres to its matrix 
by its dermal aspect, the inner surface only is seen, 
and this displays a channel which served for the 
passage of the olfactory nerves to the nose : on the 
upj)er part, the orbital arches are dis])layed. This 
bone must have belonged to an individual not more 
than 18 inches in length. It is not a little remark- 
able, that, numerous as are the teeth of Crocodiles 
in the Tilgate strata, this minute frontal bone is the 
only vestige of the skull that has been noticed. 
T^ertehrcp. — Until the discovery of the large 
specimen before us, I considered all. those ver- 
tebrm, which had both extremities of the body 
nearly circular, and either flat or slightly concave, 
with the annular part united by suture, to belong 
to some one or more of the various species of fossil 
crocodiles whose teeth are above described. For 
although, in all the recent species the vertebrae are 
convex posteriorly and concave anteriorly, yet 
Cuvier, Soemmering, and other comparative ana- 
tomists, had shown that there were many fossil 
species with the vertebrae concave ; and that in 
one species found at Havre, the vertebrae, although 
• “ Crocodilus priscus, rostro elongate cylindrico, dentibus inferis 
alternatim longioribus, fcinoribus dupla tibiarum longitudine.” — Oss, 
Foss, tome V. p. 125. ' 
u 4 
