Description of a new species of crocodile from the Miocene of Virginia / by Joseph Leidy.

  • Leidy, Joseph, 1823-1891.
Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Description of a new species of crocodile from the Miocene of Virginia / by Joseph Leidy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    > ART. XVII.—Description of a new species of Crocodile from the Miocene of Virginia. By Joseph Leidy, M. D. Several representatives of the living crocodiles, or such as possess concavo-convex vertebral bodies, have been discovered in the cretaceous strata of the United States. Dr. Harlan* characterized a species, to which he gave the name of Crocodilus macrorhynchus, from a fragment of an inferior maxilla having in it eleven alveoli, three of which contained the teeth, found in the Green Sand formation of New Jersey. A second species was established by Dr. Morton,f which he designated Crocodilus clavirostris, from an almost entire cranium found in the Cretaceous limestone overlying the marl, near Vincentown, New Jersey. Dr. DekayJ has described several fragments of an inferior maxilla of a species of Gavial found in the Green-sand formation of the southern part of New Jersey. It is undoubtedly different from the Crocodilus macrorhynchus, Harlan, and also the gavial-like Crocodilus clavirostris, Morton. It may probably belong to one of two species of Crocodilus, since characterised by Mr. Owen,§ of London, from several vertebrae found in the same formation, which of course can only be inferred from relations of size. In the present state of uncertainty whether these fragments of fossil jaw belong to an animal different from any before characterised, it will not be improper to apply to it the name Crocodilus Dekayi, in honor to Dr. Dekay, who has so well described the specimens, because a synonyme, should the species on further discovery prove not to be new, would produce much less inconvenience, than a want of a name at present for convenient reference. The two species of Crocodile referred to, characterised by Mr. Owen from some vertebrse found in the Green Sand of New Jersey, were based upon an important difference presented in the form of the inferior spinous process of the posterior cervical and the anterior dorsal vertebree. In one species the process is double or divided by a median longitudinal cleft; in the other it is single, broad, flattened and smooth below. “Two species, therefore,” Mr. Owen observes, “of Crocodile or Alligator were thus established.” To the first the name of Crocodilus basifissus is applied, and to the other, that of Crocodilus basitruncatus, the two specific names indicating the most striking character of the bones upon which the species were founded. * Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Vol. iv, Pt. 1, p. 15, PI. 1, figs. I, 2, 8; Medical and Physical Researches, p 369. I Proceedings Acad. Nat. Sci., Vol. ii, p. 82. Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York, Vol. iii. p. 156, PI. 3, figs. 7—10. ^ Quarterly Journal Geological Society of London, Vol. t, p. 380. [Journ. A. N. S. 2d Ser. Vol. IT. Dec., 1851.]