274 
TEllTIARY VEETEBRATA OF THE FAYtM. 
Tomistoma kerunense, Andrews. 
1905. Tomistoma kentnense, C. W. Andrews, Cireol. Ma^. [5] vol. ii. p. 484. 
Type Specimen . — An imperfect rostrum, the premaxillary region being lost ; 
Geological Museum, Cairo. 
This species differs from T. gamaloides in having a more gradually tapering snout 
and less rounded orbits. The teeth are more nearly equal in size, larger, and set at 
wider intervals than in other species of the genus. 
Form. & Log. — Birket-el-Qurun beds (Middle Eocene); 12 kilometres W.S.W. of 
Gar-el-Gehannem. 
It is unfortunate that this species is very imperfectly known, since its remains 
occur in the beds below those at Qasr-el-Sagha in which T. africanum is found, and 
better specimens might have thrown some light on the succession of forms from this 
horizon to the Upper Eocene species Tomistoma gavialoides. The snout, which is the 
best specimen available for description, is much like that of T. gavialoides in general 
form. Immediately in front of the orbits its surface is curved regularly from side to 
side, much as in T. schlegeli, but it is somewhat more depressed, a condition which 
is continued throughout the length of the rostrum. The tapering of the preorbital 
region is quite gradual, more so than in T. gavialoides (see PI. XXIIl. fig. 3 a) ; 
the orbits are less rounded than in that species, though less elongated than in 
T. schlegeli. The specimen shows that the nasals meet the premaxillue in the manner 
characteristic of the genus, thus excluding the maxillae from union in the middle 
line on the upper surface of the snout. The iuterorbital bar is broader than in 
T. gavialoides. 
The teeth, judging from the alveoli, were large and were directed more forwards 
and outwards than in T. schlegeli, from which this form is also distinguished by the 
absence of pits for the reception of tlie tips of mandibular teeth. Tlie teeth seem to 
have been more nearly equal throxighout the series than in T. scldegeli or T. africanum. 
and are separated by wider intervals, so that between the level of the posterior end 
of the palatine processes of the premaxillsc and the anterior angle of the posterior 
palatine fossa there are only nine teeth, while in T. schlegeli, in the same space, there 
are ten, and in T. gavialoides twelve. 
A portion of the back of a skull, including the occipital surface and the roof as far 
as just in front of the supratcmporal fossag was also collected by Mr. Beadnell in the 
same locality. So far as it is preserved, this ])art of the skull is almost identical with 
that of T. gavialoides. 
