OF TILGATE FOREST. 
^^97 
a sternal apparatus essentially different from that 
which cliaracterises the animals of this family. It 
will materially elucidate our future remarks, if in 
this place we notice the several kinds of saurian 
vertebne which have been found in the Wealden 
formation. They are referable to at least four 
systems, independently of the vertebrm of the Ple- 
siosaurus above noticed. The first vertebne are 
of the Crocodilian type (tig. 1.) : these, as we Iiave 
already remarked, have both extremities nearly flat, 
or sliglitly concave ; aiul their facets are either 
circular or elliptical, according to tlie place they 
occupied in the column : the body is more or less 
arclied, is somewhat contracted, smooth, and 
rounded in the dorsal, and ridged or keeled in the 
caudal (vide Tilg. Foss. pi. ix. figs. 1. and 11.). 
The vertebra' of the Megalosaurus of Stonesfield 
appear to be of this kind ; they are described as 
much contracted in the middle, and ivith a deep de- 
pression immediatehj beneath the annular part. If 
the latter character should prove to be constant, it 
will serve to distinguish them ; but among upwards 
of thirty vertebra? of this type before me, the de- 
pression is so variable, that it could not be assumed 
as a permanent cliaracter.* 
* The specimen, pi. ix. 11. Tilgate Fossils, is described as a ver- 
tebra of a Megalosaurus ; but it cannot, I now think, be separated from 
those figured in the same plate, as belonging to a crocodile. INI. Cu- 
vier describes the vertebroe of the Megalosaurus as resembling those 
of the crocodile of Honfleur, and other fossil species. I have lately 
seen a vertebra from the forest marble, in the collection of Mr. Channing 
Pierce, of Bradford, which has a deep sulcus immediately beneath the 
transverse process j and this character is so strongly developed, that 
it is probable it may prove to be constant. 
