SECTION IV.
FOSSIL SAURIANS.
Nearly at the head of the surprising discoveries, which
have been made relating to the family of Saurians, we may
rank the remains of many extraordinary species, which
inhabited the sea; and which present almost incredible
combinations of form, and structure; adapting them for
modes of life that do not occur among living reptiles. These
remains are most abundant throughout the lias and oolite
formations of the secondary series.[1] In these deposites we
find not only animals allied to Crocodiles, and nearly approaching
to the Gavial of the Ganges; but also still more
numerous gigantic Lizards, that inhabited the then existing
seas and estuaries.
Some of the most remarkable of these reptiles have been arranged under the genus Ichthyosaurus, (or Fish Lizard,) in consequence of the partial resemblance of their vertebræ to those of fishes. (See Plate 1, Fig. 51, and Plates 7, 8, 9.) If we examine these creatures with a view to their capabilities of locomotion, and the means of offence and defence which their extraordinary structure afforded to them; we shall find combinations of form and mechanical contrivances
- ↑ The chief repository in which these animals have been found is the lias, at Lyme Regis; but they abound also along the whole extent of this formation throughout England, e. g. from the coast of Dorset, through Somerset and Leicestershire, to the coast of Yorkshire: they are found also in the lias of Germany and France. The range of the genus Ichthyosaurus seems to have begun with the Muschelkalk, and to have extended through the whole of the oolitic period into the cretaceous formation. The most recent stratum in which any remains of this genus have yet been found is the chalk marl at Dover, where they have been discovered by Mr. Mantell: I have found them in the gault, near Benson, Oxon.
