Zoological Collections. 143 



Ant. XXIX.— ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS. 



1. Conybeare oti the Plesiosaurus. 

 _T ROM an examination of detached bones, procured even from dis- 

 tant localities, the late Mr Conybeare had collected a number of facts 

 which induced him to publish in the Trans, of the Geo/og. Soc. for 

 1821, an account of a new fossil genus of reptiles, which he named 

 Plesiosaurus. The accuracy of his views have been confirmed by the dis- 

 covery of an almost perfect skeleton, which has corroborated his opinions 

 in every essential particular. The most remarkable circumstance in the 

 osteology of this animal, is the number of cervical vertebra?, amounting to 

 thirty-nine, or including the anterior dorsal, which are placed before the 

 humerus, forty-one. By the philosophical naturalist, this extraordinary- 

 elongation of neck will be considered with great interest, as it assimilates 

 its structure less to fishes, in which the sternum is thrown forwards, 

 though destined to move in the same element with them, than to birds, in 

 which this part of the skeleton is brought forwards. 



Mr Conybeare conjectures from the form of its paddles, that it may have 

 swam on the surface of the ocean, with its long neck arched backwards like 

 that of a swan, ready to dart at the prey that came within reach ; or it 

 may have lurked in shoal water, hidden from the attacks of its enemies, 

 and deriving, from the flexibility of its neck, a compensation for that want 

 of agility indicated by its organization. 



2. Discovery of the Megalosaurus. 

 Fossil zoology has received a very interesting addition by the discov- 

 ery of an enormous nondescript animal at Stonesfield, near Oxford. 

 The remains are very imperfect, but Professor Buckland has been en- 

 abled to ascertain, that they have belonged, like the Plesiosaurus, to 

 an animal of the Saurian order of reptiles. The most important frag- 

 ment that has yet been found, consists of a portion of the lower jaw- 

 bone, nearly one foot in length, which is interesting as developing its 

 mode of dentition, and from which it is obvious that this part must 

 have terminated in a flat, straight, and very narrow snout. From the pro- 

 portions of a thigh-bone, found at Cuckfield, Sussex, Professor Buckland 

 estimates the length of this reptile to have been upwards of sixty feet, and 

 its bulk to have equalled that of an elephant seven feet high. It, there- 

 fore, fully merits the name of Megalosaurus, which he has applied to it. 

 Geolog. Trans- Second Series, vol. i. part ii. 



3. Gigantic Fossil Coral. 

 This remarkable fossil, the Astrea dendroidea of Lamouroux, was de- 

 scribed by that author, from an irregular fragment a few centimetres in 

 height. M. Le Sauvage has, however, been so fortunate as to discover a 

 magnificent specimen, several feet in height, imbedded in the coralloid 

 limestone of the Falaise of Be'nnervillc. The fine preservation of this spe- 

 cimen, has furnished 3VI. Le Sauvage with characters sufficiently distinct 



