the greatest solidity and strength with the least weight of bone, is admirably calculated at once to increase the buoyancy of the animal, and to enable it to face the waves of an agitated ocean, and has doubtlessly been given to it to fit it for its marine abode.
The general form of the jaw differs from that of the crocodile in being much more lengthened and acutely angular ; its termination is indeed almost as sharp as the beak of a bird. ‡
The accompanying figures (plate 40, fig. 1 to 10) will explain the forms and arrangement of these bones better than any verbal description. In order to facilitate comparison with the analogous bones in the crocodile, we have employed the same letters with which M. Cuvier has marked the head of that animal, in his memoir on the fossil remains of oviparous quadrupeds: † viz. u, dental ; x, coronoid ; -v, angular ; ?, opercular ; y, articular.
The appearance and range of the dental, coronoid, and angular bones on the outer face of the jaw, are shewn in the side view of the head (Fig. 9. plate 40.)
The view of the lower jaw, as seen from beneath (fig. 10, plate 40) exhibits the course of these bones and the opercular throughout the jaw. The transverse sections numbered from one to eight (plate 40), the position of which is indicated by the dotted lines in the side of the head, fully elucidate the form of the several bones