153 THH ICHTHYOSAURUE, 
and among the latter remains of its own species, so that it not 
only was a beast of prey, but it devoured its own kind. 
We may next notice the vertebrae or separate parts of the back 
bone. They were more than 100 in number, thus giving great 
flexibility to the column. But these vertebree correspond more 
closely to those of fishes in shape, and this tells us further that 
the Ichthyosaurus was fitted for very rapid motion in the water. 
The distinguishing feature of the vertebrz of fishes is that they 
are hollow on their faces, whereas those of other animals are 
more or less flat. Land quadrupeds e.g. require flat surfaces to 
these bones, because they press heavily against each other as 
they support the weight of the body. An arrangement of hollow 
vertebree is weaker, and, therefore, the Ichthyosaurus with its 
huge body could not have moved about much on the land. This 
is another conclusion we draw from the character of the fossil ; 
and we also begin to suspect that a hollow vertebral column tells 
of fins or paddles instead of legs. To these we will now come. 
Some of them are very perfectly preserved. Each consisted of a 
large number of bones—about 100 and at first sight seems an 
organ totally different from the hand or front member found in 
land animals. It is however constructed on the same plan; if you 
look closely you will find that the bones are arranged in five 
columns answering to the fingers and thumb, that next to these 
come the two bones of the fore arm, the wna and radius, very 
short and stout, and then the arm bone or humerus also short and 
stout as was necessary to the size of the animal. This arrange- 
ment is identical with that in our own arms and hands, and is 
one moreillustration of the great unity of plan whichnot only exists 
in creation now, but is thus shown to have existed in the dim 
vistas of the past. But there is a difference between the front 
and back pair of paddles, the former being much larger;—and 
why? Because the Ichthyosaurus being an air-breathing animal 
was obliged frequently to come to the surface to breathe, as the 
whale does now. The whale only possesses a front pair of fins, 
and seals which have two pairs havethe anterior pair much larger, 
as our ancient friend had. The arrangement is the same as that 
