EXTINCT ORDEES OE REPTILES. 235 



shaft, wliilst all the long bones contain large medullary 

 cavities, there can be no doubt but that Megalosaurus was 

 terrestrial in its habits. That it was caxnivorous and de- 

 structive in the highest degree is shown by the powerful, 

 pointed, and trenchant teeth. 



The teeth in Megalosmirus (fig. 578) are conical, com- 

 pressed, with finely-serrated edges. The fore-limbs are ex- 



Fig. 57S. — Cranium of Megalosmmis, restored. (After Professor Pliillips.) 



traordinarily smaller than the hind-limbs. The teeth do not 

 become worn by mastication; and there appears to have been 

 no exoskeleton. In the Cretaceous deposits of North America 

 the place of Megalosaurus is taken by the closely - allied 

 Lmlaps (or Dryptosaiirus). 



One of the most remarkable of the Deinosauria is the little 

 Compsognathus longipes of the Lithographic Slate of Solen- 

 hofen, regarded by Professor Huxley as the type of a special 

 group (Compsognatha) of his order Ornitlioscelida. The special 

 characters distinguishing this group are, that the cervical 

 region of the spine is long, and the femur is shorter than the 

 tibia ; whereas in the typical Deinosauria the neck is rela- 

 tively short, and the femur is as long as, or longer than, the 

 tibia. Comp>sognathus is not remarkable for its size, which 

 does not seem to have been much more than two feet, but 

 for the striking affinities which it exhibits to the true Birds. 

 The head of Compsognathus was furnished with toothed jaws, 

 and supported upon a long and slender neck. The fore- 



