77 
Rev. George Young on a Fossil Crocodile. 
The length of the animal, following the curvature of the spine, 
is 14 feet 6 inches ; but, in its entire state, it must have been 
about 18 feet long; as the snout is considerably mutilated, and 
a small portion of the tail also was left in the cliff*, owing to the 
difficulty of extracting the vertebra?. The mutilated state of the 
snout has been occasioned by its exposure to the atmosphere ; 
in consequence of which, successive portions of the muzzle must 
have been detached, and have dropped down on the beach. 
Fortunately, another specimen of the head of this animal, ha- 
ving the muzzle complete, is also in the Whitby Museum ; and 
it is figured in the drawing, to shew the entire length and form 
of the head. The dimensions of the latter, compared with what 
we have of the new discovered specimen, shew, that it has be- 
longed to a specimen only half its size ; and hence, to make it 
correspond with the other, it is drawm on a scale twice as large. 
The entire head measures 2 feet 3 inches ; and the imperfect 
one, must, therefore, have been about 4 feet 6 inches long ; so 
that, as it now measures only 19 inches, it must have lost about 
a yard of its length. The cranium, towards the upper part, is 
a foot broad in the larger specimen, and half a foot in the smal- 
ler. The orbits of the eyes approach near to each other, and 
look upwards, as in the recent crocodile. They are much smal- 
ler than those of the Ichthyosaurus. Behind them are two very 
deep fossae^ of an oblong form, separated only by a thin 
septum. Before them, at a short distance, are seen the nostrils ; 
in the position of which, the animal differs greatly from the 
common crocodile, which has its nostrils near the end of the 
muzzle. The great length of the snout is another point of dif- 
ference ; our fossil animal being, in this respect, more nearly al- 
lied to the gavial. The region of the nostrils being injured in 
the smaller head, they cannot be discerned ; but they are very 
conspicuous in the larger, and in another head of the same 
animal, in the collection of Thomas Hinderwell, Esq. of Scar- 
borough, published in the Geological Survey of the Yorkshire 
coast, Plate xvi. fig. 2, as the head of an Ichthyosaurus. 
The teeth are small, and very numerous, and they are arranged 
in straight lines, as in the Ichthyosaurus, and not in the bend- 
ing or curved form, in which those of the recent crocodile are 
placed. 
Before proceeding to describe the body of the fossil animal, it 
