114 



|lote oil tlje ^oml Remains of a 

 "f lesio^ininis! from <Satreniak. 



By Thomas Codrington, M. Inst. C.E., F.G.S. 



A paper in WiJts Arch. Mag., (vol. ix., p. 170) recorded the finding in the 

 railway cutting at Savernake, of the remains of a Plesiosaurus with six or 

 seven quartzoze pebbles among the ribs. There were no other pebbles in 

 the Upper Greensand of the cutting, nor in the Chloritic marl overlying it 

 not far off, and the position of the pebbles suggested that they formed part 

 of the contents of the stomach of the reptile. The remains were kept by the 

 author in the hope that some further light would be forthcoming. 



In 1877 Professor Seeley {Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, 

 vol. xxxiii., p. 546) recorded the occurrence of "about a peck of ovate and 

 rounded pebbles " in the lower dorsal region of a saurian from the Gault of 

 Folkestone, and suggested that thej' were swallowed by the reptile, and may 

 have served the purpose of breaking up its food, in connexion with something 

 analogous to a gizzard. But the suggestion was not favoured by Mr. J. W. 

 Hulke, a considerable authority on fossil reptiles, and the matter seems to 

 have received no further notice. 



In 1905 the author received a communication from Mr. W. H. Wicks, 

 referring to the notice in the Wilts Arch. Mag. of 1866, and informing him 

 that a discussion had arisen in America about pebbles which were often 

 found in association with remains of plesiosaurs in North America. It 

 appeared on reference to the journal {Science, 4 S., vol. xx.) in which the 

 discussion had taken place that the conclusion come to by Dr. S. W. Williston 

 was, tliat pleiosaurs having no crushing teeth, had the habit of swallowing 

 pebbles to effect the breaking up and crushing of the food in the stomach. 

 In support of this it was stated that living crocodiles have that habit, and, 

 on Buckland's authority, that the Arabs judge the age of the creature by the 

 number of stones found in its stomach, supposing that one is swallowed 

 every year. 



From inquiry lately made by the Administrator of North Eastern Rhodesia 

 it appears that the crocodile's habit of swallowing stones is well known to 

 the natives in that part of Africa, and that there is the same belief that the 

 number of stones shows the age of the creature. Mr. Thornicroft, a Native 

 Commissioner, and a great hunter, has often heard so from native hunters, 

 and on having a fairly big crocodile cut open last year he found a large 

 quantity, of stones in the stomach ranging from coarse gravel to stones of 

 some size. 



Attention having thus been directed to the Savernake specimen, it was 

 presented by the author to the British Museum, South Kensington, where 

 it now lies alongside a specimen acquired shortly after, consisting of the 

 fossilized contents of the stomach of a Plesiosaurus, including stones, from 

 the Oxford Clay of Peterborough. 



The sequel to a discovery recorded more than forty years ago, in the 

 Wilts Arch. Mag. may be of Interest to some members of the Society. 



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