104 EXTINCT MONSTERS. 



and Cycluras, have large processes with horny coverings, forming 

 a kind of fringe or crest along the back, and, judging by analogy. 

 Dr. Mantell concluded that this gigantic saurian was similarly 

 armed with a row of large angular spines covered by a thick 

 horny investment. As weapons of offence and defence, they 

 were no doubt highly effective, but their precise arrangement 

 is still a matter of speculation. 



This first specimen displayed, besides the bony scutes and 

 spines, a portion of the backbone, eleven ribs and portions of 

 the pectoral arch. A second specimen was found near Bolney, 

 in Sussex, and was unfortunately almost wholly destroyed by the 

 labourers ; but Dr. Mantell was able to obtain many of the bones, 

 such as ribs and limb-bones, and they also indicated a reptile of 

 great size. A third specimen was brought to light in Tilgate 

 Forest in 1837 ; but, unfortunately, this also fell into the hands 

 of the parish labourers, who were unacquainted with its value. 

 Although with due care a much larger portion of the skeleton 

 might have been kept, yet Dr. Mantell was able to obtain a fine 

 series of twenty-six vertebrae belonging to the tail, with a total 

 length of nearly six feet : the same spines were present here also. 



No specimen of the skull of this strange monster is known, 

 and no teeth that can be with certainty referred to it. 



Mr. -Waterhouse Hawkins's model at Sydenham, near the 

 Iguanodon, was based on the above discoveries, which are 

 insufficient, and is far from the truth. 



The next monster to be described is one that has fortunately 

 left to posterity a much better record of itself, and probably was 

 not very unlike the Hylaeosaurus of Mantell. This is the 

 Scelidosaurus : so named by Professor Owen from the indications 

 of greater power in the hind legs than in most saurians.^ It is 

 the only known example of an almost entire skeleton of an 

 English Dinosaur, and the history of its discovery is rather 

 ^ From Greek — scelis, limb, and sauros, lizard. 



