On Stagonolepis Robertsoni , and on the Evolution of the Crocodilia

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Abstract
N early seventeen years ago I had the honour of laying before the Geological Society* an account of such remains of a remarkable reptile ( Stagonolepis Robertsoni ) as, up to that time, had been found in the sandstones of the neighbourhood of Elgin, and the conclusion at which I had arrived, “that Stagonolepis is, in the main, a Crocodilian reptile.” These remains, however, like all the other fossils from the same district which have come under my notice, were not in a condition very favourable to their interpretation. With the exception of a few dermal scutes, I do not think that a single entire bone, or cast of a bone, has come into my hands; and the most instructive specimens have not been the bones themselves, the osseous matter being always soft, friable, and injured, but their casts in the sandstone. The evidence afforded by the remains of vertebræ and scutes was sufficiently decisive to warrant my conclusion as to the general nature of the animal; but, in respect of the other parts of the skeleton, the surmises which I made in 1858 needed confirmation, or the reverse, by the study of additional materials. Such materials have from time to time been obtained by the exertions of my friend the Rev. Dr. Gordon, of Birnie, near Elgin, who, aided by a grant from the Donation Fund of the Royal Society, has undertaken the exploration of the fossiliferous beds whenever the operations of the quarrymen laid them bare, and has from time to

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