Notice of the Discovery of the Zygcdon. 77 



been by the principal physiologists tliroughout Europe, seem now placed 

 above the risk of refutation. It still, however, remains to reconcile the 

 seeming structural connexion^ and the manifest functional, opposition of 

 the after-brain and posterior rachitic column ; for the decussation in the 

 medulla oblongata, observed, among others, by Rolando and Solly, 

 whereby the cerebellum and anterior column are connected, is appa- 

 rently too partial to reconcile the discordant phenomena. (Bell's Ner- 

 vous Sj'stem ; Shaw's Narrative ; Muller's Physiology, &c.) 



Notice of the Discovery of a nearly complete Skeleton of the 

 Zygodon of Owen {Basilosaurus of Harlan) in Alabama. 

 Bv S. B. Buckley, A. M. 



Some years ago a few imperfect vertebrae of this animal were sent to 

 Philadelphia, which were found near the Wachita River in Louisiana. 

 These were described by Dr Harlan in 1834, and referred to a lost genus 

 of the Saurian order. From the great size of the bones, he called it the 

 Basilosaurus. Subsequently Harlan obtained other bones of his Basilo- 

 saurus, which were found on the plantation of Judge Creagh, of Clark 

 County, Alabama, and forwarded to Philadelphia by that gentleman. 

 These were one or two fragments of the jaws with teeth, of which the 

 upper portion was broken off and lost, also pieces of ribs, with some 

 other long bones belonging to its paddles, and several vertebrse with the 

 processes broken off. These Harlan also described in the " Transactions 

 of the American Philosophical Society." Part of these bones were taken 

 by Harlan to London, where they were pronounced by Owen, from a 

 microscopical examination of the teeth, to belong to a genus of mammalia 

 between the Saurians and Cetacea. He named it the Zygodon, in allu- 

 sion to the curious form of the molar teeth. 



Our skeleton was discovered on the plantation of Judge Creagh, the 

 same gentleman who forwarded the bones already noticed to Harlan, and 

 from the same neighbourhood in which those were obtained. The en- 

 tire vertebral column is nearly perfect, except two or three of the cervi- 

 cal, which are much broken, and it is possible that others from the same 

 part of the skeleton are lost, since the vertebrse near the head were dis- 

 jointed and scattered over a surface of several feet, but the remaining 

 portion of the vertebral column was in an almost unbroken series to the 

 extreme tail. The entire length of the skeleton, including the hcad^ is nearly 

 seventy feet ! Some of the ribs must have been upwards of six feet 

 in length, but of these we only have fragments, including their ex- 

 tremities and central parts. We have also other long bones belonging 

 to its paddles, as the animal was probably an inhabitant of the water. 

 These are small in proportion to the size of the other bones. The prin- 

 cipal organ of locomotion of the animal seems to have been its tjiil, which 



