80 



have called P. car'matus. These aiiiinals had doubtless been the food of the 

 Elasmosaurus. ' 



The end of the muzzle was broken from a part or whole of the cranium, 

 which has not been rediscovered, though Dr. Turner has made careful search. 

 It was found in front of the vertebrae, here regarded as cervical, at some dis- 

 tance from them. 



The whole skeleton has been under considerable pressure, so that most 

 of the ribs have been pressed flat on the vertebrae ; the long parapophyses of 

 the cervicals have most of them been fractured at their bases and compressed, 

 those of opposite sides thus approaching more nearly in the form of chevron- 

 bones than they otherwise would have done. The proximal cervicals are 

 ol>liquely flattened by the pressure ; the other cervicals have the bodies natu- 

 rally flat, with the articular surfaces much less so than the median portion. 

 Some of the caudals are obliquely distorted. • 



DescrijJtion. — Vertebrce. — The neck may be safely assumed as a point of 

 departure, as it consists of above sixty mostly continuous vertebrae, which 

 graduate to an atlas of very slender proportions. Most of them preserve more 

 or less developed parapophyses. At the posterior extremity of this series 

 sixteen are perfectly continuous, and in this portion a great gradation in form 

 is apparent. The anterior are narrow, compressed, and similar to the more 

 distal cervicals in the elevated position of the lateral angle; the anterior are 

 subquadrate, thick, and with lower lateral rib, and stronger (f) pleurapophy- 

 sis. In these respects, the latter resemble the dorsals which follow toward 

 what I beHeve to be the tail. Four anterior dorsals are in one mass (figured 

 in Plate 3) ; in this series, the lateral angle first approaching is finally lost in 

 the margin of the rib-pit, the posterior thus resembling other dorsals. 



In a series of four anterior dorsals, which, like the preceding, are in 

 their original continuous mass, those of one extremity have centra rounded in 

 section, with inferior rib-pits ; those of the other have quadrate centra and 

 elevated diapophyses; the former have the character of the first dorsals, the 

 latter of the median dorsals. The posterior dorsals and anterior caudals form, 

 in like manner, a continuous series of eleven vertebrae, fractured in four places. 

 In them, the diapophyses steadily descend, reaching the inferior plane in the 

 last; thus, with the reduction of the venous foramina to one at the seventh, 

 indicating the point of transition from dorsal to caudal series. The zygapo- 

 physes preserve the usual arrangement, but are much compressed, so that the 



