224—16 INDIAN TERTIARY AND POST-TERTIARY VERTEBRATA. 
Group B. — Pits in the cranial rostrum for the majority of the mandibular teeth. 
Species 3. Gharialis curvirostris, n. sp., nobis. 
History . — The remains of this species are described for the first time. 
Type crania . — The specimens on which the species is founded are portions of 
three crania in the Indian Museum collected by Mr. F. Fedden from the lower 
Siwaliks of the Laki Hills, Sind. Of these the most perfect are the two specimens 
represented in plate XXXI. figs. 1, la, and 2, 2a, 2b, which belong to the same 
individual, and indicate that the cranium was originally complete, and was probably 
broken uj) by native collectors. The fragment represented in figs. 2, 2a, 2b, consists 
of the terminal portion of the cranial rostrum, extending backwards as far as the 
third alveolus behind the termination of the maxillo-premaxillary suture. The teeth 
have all fallen from their alveoli, but with the exception of the loss of the outer 
portion of the alveolus of the third tooth of the right side the specimen is very 
perfect. The maxillo-premaxillary suture is visible on the facial surface, and from 
its position, as well as from the general structure of the specimen, and that 
represented in fig. 1, there caii be no doubt of the close affinity of this form to 
Gharialis. As in the existing species of that genus there are distinct notches for the 
reception of the first and fourth mandibular teeth, and the nasals were widely 
separated from the premaxillm ; the alveolar borders of the rostrum are also 
distinctly bevelled away, but to a smaller extent. The fossil differs, however, from 
G. gangeticus in the almost complete absence of the lateral expansion of the 
jDremaxillse, the third tooth being placed in the same line as the maxillary teeth, and 
the second^ having only its external third placed outside the line, instead of the 
whole tooth being far beyond it. Another important difference consists in the 
presence of small pits on the line of the inner border of the dental alveoli for the 
reception of the points of the mandibular teeth. The alveoli are less obliquely 
placed than in the existing species, and are separated from another by an interval 
equal to their antero-posterior diameter. The relative width of the rostrum and the 
size of the alveoli are not far different from those obtaining in G. gangeticus -iho, 
length of the space occupied by three alveoli being considerably more than half the 
width of the rostrum. On the facial aspect (fig. 2) the aperture of the external 
nares agrees very closely in contour with that of the existing species : the high ridge 
on the posterior boundary, which probably indicates that the specimen belonged to 
a male individual, is however, unlike the same part in the latter. The anterior 
border of the orbit is not everted. 
The fragment represented from the facial and lateral aspects in fig. 1, la 
comprises that portion of the cranium situated between the supratemporal fossae and 
the ninth tooth from the posterior termination of the series. In profile (fig. la) this 
specimen differs from G. gangeticus by the marked upward curvation of the rostrum 
as it approaches the point of fracture. The nature of this cmwature taken together 
1 Ab is so generally the case in the genus there is a small additional alveolus between the proper fii’st and second alveoli. 
