67 



present any of the characters of an ophidian reptile, the ball and 

 socket joint of the bodies and the double articulating processes 

 being in all cases wanting. The processes of the vertebra?, how- 

 ever, are in general so imperfect, that this last assertion must be 

 taken with some limitation. It is also worthy of notice that some 

 of the vertebra? have the appearance of having been imbedded in 

 a matrix, while others are so clean and comparatively recent in 

 their appearance, that it seems impossible that they should have 

 been thus imbedded. 



III. Rihs. These are few in number, and are not supposed 

 to be anything more than an incomplete set. Some of the more 

 perfect ones present two articulating surfaces, one at the head 

 and the other at the tubercle, like those of most animals, but 

 entirely unlike those of the serpents. They are remarkable for 

 their flattened, club-shaped extremities, to which there is, however, 

 something analogous in the herbivorous cetaceans. 



IV. Paddles. These are composed of two kinds of pieces ; 

 one of which possibly consists of the long bones, naturally form- 

 ing a part of an anterior extremity ; but which he could not identify 

 on a cursory examination. The other pieces consist not of bones, 

 b'Jt of casts of the cavities of a camerated shell, a species of 

 Nautilus, of which specimens, brought from the State of Ala- 

 bama, and now in the Cabinet of the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences, were shown to Prof. W. by Dr. Morton, of Philadelphia. 

 These could not fail to strike the eye at a glance, M'hen examined 

 by any one acquainted with the forms of fossil nautiloid shells. 



From the facts above stated. Prof. Wyman considered it to be 

 evident to those who have any acquaintance with fossil osteology, 

 1st, that these remains have never belonged to one and the same 

 individual ; 2d, that the anatomical characters of the teeth indi- 

 cate that they are not those of a reptile, but of a warm-blooded 

 mammal. 



As to the precise species to which they belonged, it is not so 

 easy to decide. The late Dr. Harlan, of Philadelphia, to whom 

 the fossil osteologist is so much indebted, several years since, 

 described some bones and a portion of a jaw, brought from Ala- 

 bama, which he considered as those of a reptile, and to which he 

 gave the name of Basilosaiirits, believing that they belonged to 

 a gigantic Saurian. The subsequent examinations of Prof. Owen, 



