172 BRITISH FOSSIL REPTILES. 



{Varanus girjanteus) and it may prove that the post-orbital part of the skiiU is 

 somewhat shorter than in fig. 5. Moreover, the present fossils impress me with 

 the notion that they have come from a rather smaller individual than those yielding- 

 the subjects of the undercited plates.^ But on these data and subsequent materials, 

 I estimate the total length of the skull of Mcgalosaurus Bucldandi not to have 

 exceeded 2 feet 6 inches ; they do not support that of " four or five feet " ascribed 

 to it by Professor Phillips. 



In one of the l)locks of quarry stone lodging a portion of the skull above 

 described appeared a slender position of an elongate bone, which, on further 

 exposure, suggested its interpretation as a dermal spine. It was 2f rds of an 

 inch in length — 68 mUlims. — with an expanded, seemingly basal half. The 

 narrower part was 28 millims. in length, the broader part 40 millims. in length ; 

 this part extended on each side into a low angular plate, giving, between the 

 angles, a breadth of 20 milhms. Beyond or below these angles the spine contracts, 

 but thickens. Both ends were broken off; the basal end giving a thickness or 

 breadth of 7 millims. 



On the hypothesis that this lamellate spine formed part of the dermal armour 

 or appendages of the Megalosaur, the quest was excited of other palasontographical 

 descriptions of extinct forms belonging or allied to the Dinosaurian order. 



In the instructive volume,^ issued by the accomplished Professor of Paleeontology 

 in the ' Musee d'histoire naturelle, Paris,' a description is given of an extinct 

 reptile, from the Lower Permian of Igornay, Franco, under the name of StereoracMs 

 do7ninans f and, associated with remains of the skull and humerus, were " ecailles 

 en forme d'epines ; " they are figured in numbers on the block with part of the 

 skeleton, p. 280 ; and of the natural size, p. 284 ; they are smaller but similar in 

 shape to that above described, and referred to the Megalosaur. 



Genus — BoTHEiospoNDYLUs, Owen. 



Species — Botlmospondyhis magnus, Owen (Dinosauria, Plate, nat. size). 



In the year 1874 I received portions of vertebrse from Wealden beds represented 

 by blue shaly clay and much lignite, near Barnes' Chine, South Coast, Isle of 

 Wight. They were referred to a genus named Bothriosjwndylus,* and the centrum 

 of a dorsal vertebra was described and figured, as Bothriospondylus magnus, in a 



^ ' Dinosauria,' vol. i, pla. 24 — 32. 



2 ' Lea Enchainemonts du Monde Animal dans les Temps Geologiques,' par Albert Gaudet, 

 Membre de I'lnstitut, &c. 



3 lb., pp. 279—284, figs. 281, 282, 283. 

 * Vol. i, p. 551, 



