42 



Chelonia. 



The collection is particularly rich in remains of Chelonians 

 from the Purbeck beds of Swanage, Dorset, the Chalk, Gault, and 

 Greensand of England, the Maestricht beds of Holland, the 

 Eocene Tertiaries of Harwich, Sheppey, Hampshire, the Isle of 

 Wight, and other localities. 



The last surviving species of Chelonian indigenous to England 

 was the Mai-sh Tortoise, JEniys orbicularis, Linn., whose remains 

 have been found in fluviatile deposits of Post-Pliocene age at 

 Mundesley and East Wretham Fen, in Norfolk (see "Geol, Mag." 

 1879, p. 304), once common over a large part of Europe and still 

 living in the South of Europe, in Asia and Algeria. 



Some of the old gigantic land-tortoises (of which a few only 

 survive) inhabited Mauritius, the Seychelles, and other islands 



Fig. 56. — Dorsal aspect of Ihe carapace of Plati/chelys Obcrndorferi (^Vfagaer). 

 graphic stone ( = Lr. Kimmeridgian), Kelheim, Bavaria. 4 nat. size. 



Litho- 



Chelonia. 

 West Cor- 

 ridor, No. 

 on Flan. 



of the Indian Ocean and the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific. 

 Like the Dodo, they have been gradually extei'minated by the 

 hand of man. 



Two fine specimens of a very large extinct land-tortoise 

 (Testudo Grandidieri) obtained from Cave-deposits in S.W. 

 Madagascar are exhibited in Table-cases, Nos. 20 and 21. 



The largest of the fossil forms (a restored cast of which is 

 placed on a stand in the centre of Narrow Gallery No. V) is 



