63 



TEIAS. 



The organic relics of this system are most abund- 

 ant in the Muschelkalk. There we are presented 

 with a great number of crinoids and shells, all dif- 

 fering in specific character from their predecessors 

 of the same orders. The crinoid called, from its 

 elegant lily-like shape, Encrinites Moniliformis, is 

 a conspicuous fossil. The brachiopods, here almost 

 extinct, are replaced by ostracea of various genera 

 a change from the animals of deep to those of 

 shallow seas. The univalve mollusks also indicate 

 a condition of the sea advancing towards that 

 which exists near the present shores. In the new 

 forms of cephalopoda are some marking their ad- 

 vanced character by their non-possession of a shell 

 or stony skeleton. In this case, the existence of 

 the animal is only betrayed by its horny mandible, 

 constituting the fossils called rhyncholites. 



FIG. 35. 



FIG, 36. 



A 



Khyncholites. 

 A, seen from the side; B, seen from above. 



There are in this system further and more de- ^ ^ . 

 cided traces of the Reptilian class. In the lower mon mf or . 

 beds of the Upper New Red Sandstone, near mis. 

 Shrewsbury, we are introduced to a new lacer- 

 tilian, presenting some remarkable characters, and named 

 the Rhynchosaurus. From the few fragments of the animal 

 which have been discovered, it would appear to have had a 

 toothless head, resembling that of a bird, and enclosed in a 



