[610] Gonio-pholis:—angle-scute. Brit. Assoc. Rep. 1841, p. 72. Both the slabs of the Swanage specimen are admirably arranged in the same case in the British Museum, with bones and scutes of this reptile from Tilgate Forest; there can be no doubt that the entire lower jaw of the Swanage reptile might have been obtained if the quarry-men had taken the precaution of examining the adjoining block of stone.
Pœcilopleuron.—The remains of an allied genus of Crocodile, the Pœcilopleuron Bucklandi (of Deslongchamps), occur in the Oolite, near Caen, Normandy. This reptile, like the Goniopholis, had biconcave vertebræ, with a large medullary cavity in the middle of the centrum. The body of the vertebræ is contracted in the middle, the neural arch anchylosed, with no trace of suture, and with a thin spinous process, which is remarkable for its backward inclination. Vertebræ of this character also occur in the Wealden strata of Tilgate Forest and the Isle of Wight.[611]
[611] Brit. Assoc. Rep. 1841, p. 84. Foss. Til. For. pl. ix. fig. 8, represents a caudal vertebra.
Teleosaurus. (Bd. pl. xxv.)—In the Oolite of England and the Continent, the remains of a genus of extinct reptiles, having, like the recent Gavial, long slender muzzles, have been discovered in several localities. These fossils consist of the osseous scutes of an imbricated dermal cuirass; of the cranium and jaws with teeth; of the vertebral column; and many other bones. The characters of the dermal scutes, and of the muzzle with its terminal nasal apertures, have already been described ([p. 659], and [p. 676]). There are several species of Teleosaurus; a splendid specimen of T. Chapmanni, fifteen feet long, from the Lias-shale on the Yorkshire coast, is preserved in the Whitby Museum; and there are interesting examples in the British Museum.[612] Teleosaurian remains have been found in the Oolite at Stonesfield, and at Deddington, Oxfordshire; and Mr. C. Moore, of Ilminster, whose museum is rich with perfect Ichthyosaurs and Fishes from the Upper Lias of the neighbourhood, has been highly successful in developing some charming specimens of small Teleosaurs from out of the same deposit. In the Oolite of Caen, in Normandy, very fine specimens of T. Cadomensis have been discovered; and from these the illustrious Cuvier first determined the character and affinities of the original.[613] The British Oolite contains also the relics of a reptile with biconcave vertebræ, belonging to the genus Steneosaurus: the cranium with the jaws and teeth have been found in Kimmeridge clay, at Shotover (Bd. pl. xxv.).[614]
[612] Petrifactions, p. 178.
[613] Oss. Foss. tom. v. p. 127.
[614] Report Brit. Assoc. 1841, p. 82.
From the Jura limestone at Monheim, in Franconia, the remains of a small Crocodilian reptile (Teleosaurus priscus), with a long slender muzzle, have been obtained. In a specimen[615] from the former locality, the skull, jaws with teeth, the entire vertebral column, and many parts of the skeleton are preserved: the entire length is but three feet.
[615] Now in the British Museum: see Petrif. p. 178, where a detailed description of this unique fossil is given. See also Ossem. Foss. tom. v. pl. vi.
Streptospondylus, [Lign. 206], figs. 5, 7.—Baron Cuvier in his celebrated work, "Recherches sur les Ossemens Fossiles," has given an elaborate description of the remains of two kinds of slender-nosed Crocodilians, from the Kimmeridge clay of Honfleur, and the Oxford clay of Havre.