460 Geological Society : — Aimiversary o/" 1839. 



And it was remarked as interesting, that the living genus of the hog 

 tribe which most resembles tlie Chaeropotamus, the Peccari, exists 

 ill South America, where the Tapir, the nearest living analogue oi" 

 the Anoplothere and PaljEOthere, the associates of the Chaeropo- 

 tamus, also occur. Another jaw, foimd by Mr. Pratt in the Binstcad 

 quarries in 1830, and resembling thit of the Musk Deer, Mr. Owen 

 refers to a new species of Cuvier's genus Dicobune, under the name 

 Dichobune cervinum. Mr. Owen has also given us a description of 

 Lord Cole's specimen of Plesiosaurus macroccphahis, which he com- 

 pai-es with Mr. Conybeare's Plesiosaurus Dolichodeirus, by establish- 

 ing an intermediate species, founded upon a specimen existing in 

 the British Museum, and termed by him Plesiosaurus Haiokinsii. 

 Besides tracing the analogies which connect tlie^e with each other, 

 and comparing them with the two great modifications of the saurian 

 tribe, the crocodiles and the lizards, Mr. Owen presented his remarks 

 on the form of the Plesiosaurian vertebras, founding them upon a 

 general view of the elements of which all vertebrae are constituted. 



To the communications thus made to us, we may add Mr. Owen's 

 determination of another animal, of whicli the remains brought from 

 the neighbourhood of Buenos Ayres, are among the many treasures 

 of this kind which we owe to Sir Woodbine Parish. This animal, 

 of gigantic dimensions, appears to have beeia allied to the Megathe- 

 rium, but with closer affinities to the Armadillos ; and it probably 

 l^ossessed the characteristic armour, of which, in the Megatherium, 

 the existence is perhaps problematical. Mr. Owen has termed it 

 Ghjplodon, from the furrowed shape of its teeth. 



In another communication Mr. Owen endeavoured to account for 

 the dislocation of the tail of the Ichthyosaurus at a certain point, 

 which is observable in many of the fossil skeletons of that animal. 

 This circumstance, so remarkable from its general occurrence, and 

 which Mr. Owen was the first to observe, he is disposed to account 

 for by supposing a broad tegumentary fin to have been attached to 

 the tail for a portion of its length, the position of which fin must, 

 he conceives, have been vertical. 



I cannot close my enumeration of the valuable contributions for 

 which we are indebted to Mr. Owen, without remarking how well 

 our anticipations have been verified, when, in awarding him the 

 Wollaston medal last year, we considered the labours which we thus 

 distinguished as only the beginning of an enlarged series of scientific 

 successes ; and how well also Mr. Owen's own declaration, that he 

 should lose no available time or opportunity which could be applied 

 to palgeontological research, has been borne out by the services he 

 has rendered that branch of our science. 



In the remainder of my review of what has been done among us 

 in PalfEontology I must necessarily be very brief. I have already 

 mentioned the discovery of fossil fishes in the Bagshot sand. These 

 fishes have supplied three new genera, which Dr. Buckland has 

 distinguished and has named Edaphodon, Passalodon, and Avieibo- 

 dou; of which the two first oft'er combinations of the characters of 

 bony and cartilaginous fishes. Mr. Stokes has given us his views of 



