132 NATURAL SCIENCE. Feb. 



the councils of the societies from whose pubUcations they were 

 extracted. 



To refer now more particularly to some of Owen's principal con- 

 tributions to knowledge of the vertebrata, we have first to allude to 

 the fishes, which did not attract so much notice as the higher groups. 

 Besides his detailed descriptions in the Hunterian lectures and cata- 

 logues, however, there are some of Owen's WTitings that will ever 

 remain memorable. His description of the African mud-fish 

 Protopteriis, for example, laid the foundations for the recognition of 

 the Dipnoi by Mviller, and it is interesting to note that Owen empha- 

 sised the resemblance between the teeth of this fish and the fossils 

 named Cerafodus long before anything was known of the affinities of 

 the latter. He perceived the direct serial connection between the 

 teleostean and ganoid fishes, and grouped them in one sub-class, the 

 Teleostomi. Among fossils, too, he made several advances, and to 

 him we owe the first information of the complex structure of the 

 teeth of the Holoptychian fishes named Dendvodus — a structure, as 

 Owen pointed out, only paralleled in the terrestrial extinct 

 Labyrinthodonts. 



The discovery of the remarkably complex structure of the last- 

 mentioned teeth, which Owen referred to a group of animals termed 

 Labyrinthodonts, was one of his earliest contributions to knowledge 

 of the extinct cold-blooded air-breathers. On discussing some 

 portions of the skeleton later, he concluded that these animals were 

 probably amphibia, and it is only quite lately that much evidence 

 has been brought forward to indicate their higher rank. At the same 

 time, Owen can scarcely be held responsible for the great frog-like 

 " restoration of Labyrinthodon " that is commonly ascribed to him ; he 

 merely interpreted the fragmentary bones as best he could, and 

 the monstrosity just referred to was tlie unjustifiable work of a 

 " populariser " of scientific investigation. 



Among undoubted reptiles, Owen's first important triumph was 

 his recognition of the great group of Mesozoic land-reptiles, to which 

 he gave the now-familiar name of Dinosauria. Hermann von Meyer, 

 it is true, had already expressed some vague ideas on the subject of 

 what he afterwards termed the " Pachypoda " ; but Owen, with the 

 assistance of Mantell and Buckland, was the first to arrive at so 

 much precision as could be attained in those days, and he continued 

 to make the principal contributions to our knowledge of Dinosaurs 

 for a period of nearly 40 years, describing Iguanodon, Hylceosminis, 

 Cetiosaurus, Omosaurus, Scelidosaiii'iis, Megalosauyus, and more or less 

 fragmentary remains of other genera. Even to the end, however, 

 Owen failed to appreciate some of the fundamental characters of 

 these animals, 5 and there is now not much doubt (reasoning from 



^ C/. Restoration of skull of Megalosauyus in Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. xxxix., 

 P 340 (1883). 



