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X. Evidence of a Large Extinct Lizard (Notiosaurus dentatus,'* Owen) from 
Pleistocene Deposits, Neiu South Wales, Australia. 
By Professor Owen, C.B., F.P.S., &c. 
Received, January 9,—Read January 17, 1884. 
[Plate 12.] 
On the 19th November, 1883, I received from Robt. Etheridge, Jun., Esq., the 
subject of the present Paper, with the following memorandum which accompanied the 
specimen transmitted to him by Ch. S. Wilkinson, Esq., F.L.S., F.G.S., of the 
Department of Mines, Sydney. 
“Portion of jaw and teeth from Cucldie Springs. These springs are in pleistocene 
deposits full of bones of Diprotodon, Sthenurus, Crocodile, &c., as far down as they have 
been sunk into—viz., 30 feet.” 
The specimen was a small fragment, as will be seen by the annexed figures; and to 
the bone were attached the bases of the crowns of two teeth. These were of the size 
of the serial teeth of the Australian Crocodilus porosus, of similar shape, with longi¬ 
tudinally striated enamel. 
Under the impression of Mr. Wilkinson’s note, I first compared them with the 
teeth in the series of Crocodilian skulls now exhibited in the Reptilian Gallery, 
of the Natural History Museum. But, though a longitudinally-ridged enamel is 
common to the teeth of other than the Australian species, in none were the ridges so 
strongly developed. Afterwards, submitting the fossil to a closer scrutiny, I observed 
that each ridge began by a pair of feebler ones rising from the root of the crowm, and 
uniting after a course of from 2 to 5 millims.—a character not shown by any of the 
Crocodilian teeth ; next, after close scrutiny of the broken portion of jaw to which the 
teeth were attached, I determined the parts of the bone which retained their natural 
unbroken surface. 
The fossil in question was of a jet black colour, and the surface which I concluded 
to be the outer one of a dentary element of the mandible (Plate 12, fig. 1, a) shone as 
does a piece of polished jet. 
Now such glistening exterior with perfect petrifaction characterises other fossil 
remains, especially of plants, from the same formations in Australia ; and, as to the coal- 
MDCCCLXXXIV. 
* Gr. v6tio<s, australis; aa.upo's, lacerta. 
2 K 
