292 Structure of the Fossil Saurians. 



to a fish. Meanwhile, I term the animal with these fine scales 

 the Lepidosaurus, but without reference to the class of animals 

 to which it belongs. Kriiger [Annual Register of Scientific 

 Criticism ; Jahrbucher filr Wissenschaftliche Kritik, No. 24. 

 1831, p. 191.) conceives that he recognises in these scales a 

 fucus allied to, but differing from, the Fucoides Brardii of 

 Adolphe Brongniart; which, however, is scarcely possible. 



II. With Five Toes. 

 1. Protorosau'rus. 

 This animal Cuvier receives into the class of Monitors : it 

 is the so-termed crocodile of M. Link. Schwedenborg has 

 also examined similar remains, which are preserved at Vienna. 

 The original engraving of this fossil, with a corrected drawing 

 of the foot, taken from the fossil itself, as well as a sketch of 

 the petrifaction of Link, for the communication of which I 

 was indebted to the late Privy Counsellor Von Sommer- 

 ring, were my guides in this investigation. The remains 

 described by Spener, from the mine of Kupfer-suhl; a similar 

 relic in the Royal Cabinet of Natural History at Berlin ; and 

 perhaps, also, the metallic Lacertae, of Kundmann, belong, 

 with those noticed by of Schwedenborg, to one and the 

 same species of animal. The form of the head has, on the 

 whole, some similarity with that of the crocodile of the 

 Nile; but, instead of the 15 teeth in each half of the lower 

 jaw, and 17 or 18 in the upper, which reach as far as the 

 half of the cavity of the eyes, the fossil animal contains only 

 11, which reach to the anterior corner of the cavity of the 

 eyes, as is the case in the Monitor. The body of the vertebra 

 evidently terminates, at both ends, at right angles to its axis, 

 and resembles the usual form of vertebrae in the fossil Saurians, 

 which, in this particular, decidedly differs from that of the 

 living species. The spinous processes of the dorsal vertebrae 

 are remarkably high. The number of the teeth answers to that 

 of the Monitors and Lacertae. The leg was somewhat longer 

 in relation to the thigh and foot. This species I have named, 

 after Spener, Protorosaurus Speneri. 



2. Lace'rta Neptu v ma Goldfuss. 

 Professor Goldfuss, in the Transactions of the Leopold and 

 Caroline Academy^ describes a small Saurus under the name 

 of Lacerta Neptunia. It measures no more than 3 in. 5 lines, 

 Paris measure. It wants, strictly speaking, only the tail ; but 

 many parts are so crushed, that their form is no longer to be 

 distinguished. The skull is short; and its general form si- 

 milar to the Lacertae. In the upper jaw are 26 teeth, which 



