EEPTILES ABUNDANT. 



67 



animal having a stretch of seven feet ; its eye resting in a 

 socket eighteen inches in diameter, and defended by an 

 apparatus of bony plates, like that of a bird of prey ; the 

 powerful range of teeth, and the position of the breathing 

 apertures near the extremity of the snout ; all speak to the 

 naturalist of ferocious habits like those of the modern croco- 

 dile, to which the Ichthyosaur may be considered as a link 

 from the predaceous fish. A curious light has been thrown 



FIG. 42. 



Skull of Ichthyosaurus platyodon. 



upon these habits by the pellets voided by the animal, which 

 have been found in great quantities in a fossilized state (cop- 

 rolites). In these we find fragments not only of fish, but of 

 reptiles, arguing that the, animal must have been a destructive 

 creature both to its own class and to that below it. 



The genus next in importance is the JPlesiosaurus, so called 



FIG. 43. 



Skeleton of Plesiosaurus. 



