A Jacques-Amand Eudes-Deslongchamps' unpublished work on marine crocodyliforms from the Jurassic of Normandy (France).

An unpublished manuscript by Jacques-Amand Eudes-Deslongchamps describes the remains of two species of fossil crocodyliforms attributed to the genus Steneosaurus Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1825. It is demonstrated that these notes give detailed explanations of three engravings that were executed under the direction of Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire in 1831. These plates represent remains of Steneosaurus megistorhynchus Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, in J.-A. Eudes-Deslongchamps, 1866 and Teleidosaurus calvadosii (J.-A. Eudes-Deslongchamps, 1866). Written before 1837 and likely between June 1831 and June 1832, this work would be the oldest study on thalattosuchians from Normandy, known to date, by Jacques-Amand Eudes-Deslongchamps. This document prefigures the quality of his future works on fossil crocodyliforms that he published more than thirty years later. An extensive excerpt from this document has been used by his son, Eugène Eudes-Deslongchamps, in his Prodrome des Téléosauriens du Calvados published in 1869. An unrecorded drawing found in the archives of Georges Cuvier housed in the central library of the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris is also presented. This drawing represents the mandible and the anterior extremity of the upper jaw of the first specimen of Teleosaurus cadomensis (Lamouroux, 1820). These remains, discovered in 1817, were prepared by Jacques Amand Eudes-Deslongchamps between 1826 and 1830. All of these documents shed light on the first studies of one of the major players in vertebrate paleontology at a time when this science was still in its early stages.

Odontology of Gomphotherium angustidens (Cuvier, 1817) (Proboscidea, Mammalia): data from the Middle Miocene locality of En Péjouan (Gers, France). The dental anatomy of Gomphotherium angustidens (Cuvier, 1817), the commonest proboscidean in the faunal lists of the Middle Miocene of Europe, is detailed on the basis of the numerous fossils found at En Péjouan in the vicinity of Simorre (Gers, France), a locality of Astaracian age (mammal zone MN7 or MN7/8). The examination of the morphologic and biometric variation of tusks, premolars and molars, based on an unprecedented number of specimens of one species in one locality, yields several results. The first is a better understanding of the evolutionary level of G. angustidens during the Astaracian. A second is a better knowledge of dental characters and their variation. The presence or absence of both upper and lower incisors (tusks), due to sexual dimorphism, is documented. In females, when they exist, upper tusks are much reduced. The relation between shape and growth stages of evergrowing tusks is illustrated in relation to a dental-age scale based on crania and mandibles with different premolars and/or molars and different wear stages. Variation of the orientation of the enamel band of upper tusks and of the piriform transverse sections of lower tusks is directly observed based on numerous specimens. The upper tusks are slightly curved outwards; they are not much curved ventrally although they display a twist even on rather straight tusks: in lateral view they are slightly concave dorsally at the premaxilla, then rather straight, and finally ventrally curved at the tip. The fabrication of enamel is stopped on male upper tusks at the dental ages XVII–XVIII (that is, with worn M2/m2 and first loph [id] of M3/m3 worn). No lower tusk shows circular or flat transverse sections, even if the longitudinal sulcus (on both dorsal and ventral sides) is more or less marked; the dorsal wear facet is strong but short. The bunolophodont pattern of decidual premolars, premolars and molars is extremely variable. The range of this variation is understood in details through several parameters: 1) the subdivision of lophs(ids); 2) the shape of central conules and the resulting trefoiled wear figure; 3) the degree of subdivision of the central conules; 4) the posttrite conules; 5) the labial cristae of upper molars; 6) the development of the cingulum; 7) the degree of development of the fourth loph of M3s and of the fifth lophid of m3; and 8) the amount of cement. It appears that: 1) the binary subdivision of lophs(ids) is the rule, posttrite half lophs with three cusps are rare and variable on right and left sides; on upper molars, the mesoconelet is often fused with the anterior central conule; 2) the pretrite trefoiled wear figure of upper molars shows an enlargement of the posterior central conule compared to the anterior, and this asymetry is seen even on worn teeth — this trait seems to be significant at the Astaracian, especially for M2 and M3; 3) pretrite central conules are subdivided (“serridentine” pattern), or not, and variation can be seen of right and left molars of same individuals; 4) posttrite conules are weak or absent; 5) the labial cristae of upper molars (mainly postparacrista and premetacrista) have the shape of smooth ridges and are never strongly developed; 6) the cingulum is mostly weak on the pretrite side, the development of the postingulum is extremely variable, as that of the last loph(id); 7) all M3s are tetralophodont, even the teeth which bear weak fourth loph and only one postcingulum cusp show an entoflexus between third and fourth lophs; m3s have four or five lophids ; and 8) the cement is usually present in the interlophs (ids) and around the cusps. The biometric variation of molars, especially M3s and m3s, is compatible with the explanation of sexual dimorphism. A

Hippopotamus lemerlei Grandidier, 1868 and Hippopotamus madagascariensis Guldberg, 1883 (Mammalia, Hippopotamidae): craniodental anatomy and systematic revision.

Since the 1900s, the Muséum d'Histoire naturelle of Toulouse has housed about 300 subfossil specimens of dwarf endemic hippopotamuses of Madagascar (Galliéni collection), neither described, nor determined so far. Thirteen cranial specimens, of which five complete skulls, two crania, a mandible and five fragments were described and measured. A comparative study of these specimens with those from the Natural History Museum, London, and from the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris was undertaken, complemented by the analysis of a relatively complex and disputed literature. This study allowed referring six skulls to Hippopotamus madagascariensis Guldberg, 1883 and one to H. lemerlei Grandidier, 1868. We propose six new differential diagnostic characters for these species (external sagittal crest larger, shorter, and flatter in H. lemerlei; possible presence of a fontanelle instead of mastoid foramens in H. lemerlei; zygomatic arch more robust in H. madagascariensis; facial constriction longer in H. lemerlei; orbits more rostrally oriented in H. lemerlei, more laterally in H. madagascariensis; occipital condyles more axial in H. lemerlei and more caudo-ventral in H. madagascariensis in lateral view). Individual variation, sex- and/or age-dependent, is marked; besides, thorough examination of 20 ‘diagnostic’ cranial characters on the available sample shows that these characters are not unambiguously differential. Configuration of the orbit and relative length of the face are the most diagnostic features. Observed cranio-mandibular lesions are either traumatic (wounds: intra-specific struggles) or bucco-dental (dental wear/ deletion, parodontolysis). These two species were probably sympatric, but occupying distinct niches.