Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: On Heterosuchus valdensis from the Hastings Sand. 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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![On Heterosuchus valdensis, Seeley, a Proccelian Crocodile from the Hastings Sand of Hastings. By H. G. Seeley, F.R.S., F.G.S., Professor of Geography in King’s College, London. [Plate XII.] The specimen in the British Museum, numbered 36555, came there in the second Mantelliau collection, which was acquired after Dr. Mantell’s death. It is part of a thin ironstone nodule, 10 centim. long and 6 centim. wide, from the Hastings Sand of Hastings, mani- festly water-worn, but containing vertebrae which have not hitherto been determined. The nodule (PL XII. fig. 7) displays the remains of fully a dozen vertebra), which extend round the nodule in parts of more than one coil, .so arranged as to expose the ventral surface or bodies of the vertebrae, towards the external margin of the concretion. These vertebrae indicate a proccelian Crocodile of small size; and although the remains are so imperfect, I refer them to a new genus, since their forms are different from those of any Purbeck Crocodiles or other described Crocodilia. The nodule displays some other vertebrate remains which may possibly belong to another kind of animal. Thus in a transverse fracture the outlines may be traced of two long ovals which extend in the same axis, and may represent the superior aspect of the parietal region of a small skull, in which each temporal fossa is 13 or 14 millim. wide and 7 millim. long. The external surface appears to show a very fine punctate ornament, not unlike that seen in some small Purbeck Crocodiles ; and what might be the quadrate bone is seen to extend in an outward direction as it is prolonged distally. No proccelian Crocodile has the temporal vacuities elongated in this way ; but from the imperfect preservation and small size I am doubtful whether the skull should be referred to the same animal as the vertebra), on the hypothesis that it is to be included in the Procoelia. On the worn external surface of the nodule, somewhat below the remains of the sacrum, are some obscure outlines of bones, which can only be followed with difficulty, but which may be pubis and ischium ; and in the position in which the acetabulum might exist, there is a well-defined hemispherical pit. These bones are much smaller than would have been expected ; but their proximity to the sacral vertebra makes it important to remark that the acetabulum is that of a lacertilian, while the forms of the bones which combine to form it are not crocodilian. In the possibility that all the remains may be portions of one animal, this fossil would diverge from existing Crocodiles in a direction of which no crocodilian has hitherto given evidence. The vertebra) include one late cervical, eight dorsals, and two which may be classed as sacral. These vertebrae are remarkablo](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22412566_0004.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
