CRETACEOUS REPTILES OF THE UNITED STATES. 69 
One of the most extraordinary reptiles which existed during the erctaceous 
period, both in Europe and America, is the Mosasaurus, or lizard of the Meuss. 
It was of gigantic size, and is most nearly related, among living reptiles, to the 
comparatively puny lacertians and monitors. 
A nearly entire skull, including the jaws and teeth, of the Mosasaurus cam- 
peri, was discovered in 1780 in one of the subterraneous quarries of St. Peter’s 
Mount at Maestricht. When found, the quarrymen gave notice of its discovery 
to Dr. Hoffman, a surgeon of Maestricht, who collected fossils. Dr. Hoffman 
succeeded in safely removing the skull from its position in the quarry, imbedded 
in a large block of stone, and had it conveyed to his residence. The remarka- 
ble specimen having attracted much attention, its fame reached the ears of a 
reverend canon who owned the ground above the quarry from whence the skull 
had been obtained. The canon laid claim to the specimen and applied to law 
for its possession. After a troublesome suit he obtained it, much to the cost 
and chagrin of Dr. Hoffman. In 1795 the army of the French republic laid 
siege to Maestricht and bombarded Fort St. Peter, near which was the country 
residence of the canon, where the fossil skull was preserved. The general of 
the French having been informed of the circumstances relating to the fossil, 
gave orders that the artillerists should avoid that particular quarter. The 
canon suspecting the object of this exemption, had the skull conveyed toa place 
of safety in the city. After the army obtained possession of the latter, Freicine, 
the representative of the people, promised a reward of six hundred bottles of 
wine for the recovery of the skull, which had the desired effect, for the follow- 
ing day a dozen grenadiers bore the specimen in triumph to his house. It was 
subsequently conveyed to Paris, and now forms part of the collection of the 
museum of the Jardin des Plantes. The skull of the Maestricht Mosasaurus, or 
Maestricht monitor, as it is also called, was nearly four feet long; the lower 
jaw three feet and three-quarters. The jaws were occupied by fifty-six teeth, 
besides which there were sixteen at the entrance of the throat on the ptemygoid 
bones. The teeth are large; have curved conical crowns, with the surfaces sub- 
divided into narrow planes; and have remarkably robust fangs inserted into 
deep sockets of the jaws, with which they became firmly co-ossified. 
Cuvier estimated the number of vertebrae to have been one hundred and 
thirty-three, and their bodies are concavo-convex, as in living crocodiles. The 
tail vertebrae are especially remarkable from their construction, being provided, 
as in fishes, with a co-ossified arch and spine below the bodies as well as above. 
The character of these caudal vertebree indicates the tail to have been laterally 
flattened and of great comparative depth, and thus well adapted to the aquatic 
habits of the animal. 
Remains of a species of Mosasaurus, equally huge with the Maestricht moni- 
tor, are frequently found in New Jersey in the digging of green-sand for agri- 
cultural purposes, but they are usually in a very fragmentary condition. Nev- 
ertheless, not a year has passed within the last thirty that isolated teeth, 
vertebral fragments of jaws, and other bones, have not been turned up in the 
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