On the Fossils called “ Graniconesy By Prof. Owen. 235 
size, best agreed with the granicones, on the hypothesis of these 
being “dermal bones” of such, were the teeth (Figs. 9 and 10), 
and bones (Fig. 8) of the extinct species which I have called 
Nuthetes destructor. * 
Amongst the existing forms of Lizards the dermal armour of 
the Australian species Moloch horridus is that which most resembles 
the bodies in question, except that the surface of the cone is 
smooth and corneous, the hard, horny cone being hollow, and 
sheathed upon a conical process of dense dermal tissue. I have 
not detected a trace of ossification in this tissue of the existing 
lizard. 
The resemblance, however, of its texture, as exposed by thin 
slices, with a section of the bony body of a “ granicone,” such as is 
shown under a moderately magnified power in Fig. 7, Plate XII., 
was suggestively close. Decussating bands of fibrous tissue, closely 
matted, in the body of the dermal cone of Moloch, wanted only the 
addition of osseous matter to repeat the texture shown in Fig. 7. 
I have already referred to the characteristic microscopical 
structures of the conical scutes and spines of the Thornback-rays, 
Trygons, and other Placoids of Agassiz. In Quekett’s excellent and 
useful work t the osseous tissue of the endo-skeleton only of the 
class Bejytilia is described and illustrated. The scutes, spines, and 
scales of the Lacertilia, indeed, so far as I have yet observed, with 
the exception of the long spines supporting the crest of the 
Basilisk, are horny, and supported by dense though unossified 
corium. But in the existing Orocodilia, especially in the dorsal 
region, the larger scutes have an osseous basis, coated by a thin 
horny or epithelial layer. 
The application of the histological characters of the fossil 
dermal scutes associated in the same slab of matrix with the bones 
and teeth of the small Purbeck Crocodile [Theriosuchus jpusillus, Ow.) 
induced me to resume a long-abandoned line of research, and to 
submit the results to the Society, in the establishment of which I 
had the pleasure to co-operate at a period when a great proportion 
of my anatomical researches was aided by the microscope. 
In Plate XIII. a dorsal scute of the Crocodile in question is out- 
lined of the natural size in Fig. I, and the mode of overlapping is 
indicated by the dotted line in a contiguous scute, twice the natural 
size, in Fig. 2. The scutes in the present extinct genus have the 
same peg-and-groove joints as in the larger Purbeck genus Gonio- 
fholis, but the dentition of this crocodile is generically distinct from 
that of the diminutive Theriosuchus. 
* ‘ Monograph on the Fossil Lacertian Keptiles of the Purbeck Limestones,’ 
in tlie volume of the Palseontographical Society, issued 1860, 4to, p. 31 ; and 
‘ Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society,’ 1854, p. 120. 
t Op. cit., pp. 108-134, plates viii. and ix. 
s 2 
