is another unmistakeably distinct and very remarkable species. The
descriptions and figures given by Graves, Bory de St. Vincent, and
Duméril and Bibron, of the unique specimen of this Crocodile to the
Bordeaux Museum, would alone have compelled me to differ entirely from
the view taken by Dr. Gray of the affinities of this species. These
observers agree in stating that _Crocodilus Journei_ has six cervical
scutes, arranged as in the other Crocodiles, and, as Graves says,
"separated by an interval of four inches" from the commencement of the
tergal scutes, whence it is obviously impossible that it can be a
_Mecistops_. But, in addition to this, I had the good fortune to find,
among the recent additions to that excellent osteological collection
which Dr. Gray has gradually formed at the British Museum, the skull of
a Crocodile obtained from a dealer in Paris, and labelled by him "Croc.
de l'Orinoke." I at first imagined this Crocodile to be a _Mecistops_;
but on careful investigation it turned out to be no other than the skull
of a _Crocodilus Journei_, somewhat larger than the Bordeaux specimen,
but, as the subjoined measurements will prove, agreeing with it in all
its proportions:--
Inches.
Length from end of snout to end of ossa quadrata 22-1/2
Breadth between outer margins of ossa quadrata 9-3/4
---- at the level of the anterior margins of the orbits 5-1/2
---- at the tenth tooth 3-1/2
---- at the end of the snout 2-3/4
---- of the interorbital space 1-3/4
Length of mandibular symphysis 5
Now Duméril and Bibron expressly state that the length of the head of
_C. Journei_ equals 2-1/2 times its greatest transverse diameter,
that the width of the jaws at the anterior margins of the orbit equals
one-fourth the length of the head, and that at the tenth tooth it equals
one-sixth the length of the head; and these are as nearly as possible,
it will be observed, the relations of the same dimensions in the above
list.
In the specimen in the British Museum there are eighteen teeth on each
side above, and fifteen below. The Bordeaux specimen is stated to have
the same dental formula, except that there are sixteen teeth in the left
ramus of the mandible. The fourth and tenth maxillary teeth are stated
by Graves to be as large again as the others; and the corresponding
alveoli have these proportions to one another in the British Museum
specimen. In fact, there can be no doubt that this skull is that of a
true _Crocodilus Journei_.
But its general characters at once prove the close affinity of _C.
Journei_ with the other true Crocodiles, from which it differs only in
its elongated and gradually tapering skull, and in the more backward
extension of the mandibular symphysis[4], which attains the level of the
posterior margin of the sixth tooth.
In this character, and in the extreme slenderness of the snout, there
is doubtless an approximation to _Mecistops_; but _Crocodilus Journei_
is sharply separated from that genus by the characters of its teeth, and
by those of its dermal armour.
[4] The greater proportional length of the symphysis is noted by
Duméril and Bibron.