ENAMOSAI'RIANS. 



terodacfyle. 



Plesiosaiirus. 



Ichthvosanrus. 



Labyrinthodon. 



T THE CRYSTAL PALACE. 



! air like land quadrupeds, but were cold-blooded like the crocodiles and other reptiles. Of these are represented the 

 HTHYOSAURUSandthe PLES1OSAURUS from the Lias. The former, or fish-lizard, presents combinations of 

 i mammalian, reptile, and fish structure. The short neck and long tail distinguish it from the Plesiosaurus; its 

 go and peculiar eye endowed it with great powers of vision, and the wide mouth and long jaws armed with many 

 nted teeth, indicate its carnivorous and predatoiy nature. The PLESIOSAURUS, another singular form from the Lias, 

 :haracterized by its neck of enormous length supporting a head resembling that of the lizard, furnished with the 

 th of a crocodile, with a trunk and tail of an ordinary quadruped, the ribs of the chameleon, and paddles similar to 

 ise of the whale. The TELEOSAURUS, found also in the Lias and Oolite, was a large extinct reptile, somewhat 

 embling the long and slender jawed crocodile of the Ganges. 



rhe PTERODACTYLES, or flying lizards, were covered by scales, and provided with wings, consisting of folds of 

 n, supported on the long outer finger. 



'n the secondary strata, are also found another group of colossal reptiles of great magnitude and extraordinary 

 ucture, called the Dinosaurians; the genera of this group combined both crocodilian and lacertian characters, they 

 s principally marked by the peculiar construction of their sacral and dorsal vertebrae, by the articulation of the ribs, 

 I the modification of the teeth. Of this tribe, Professor Owen remarks, that the principal genera are the Megalo- 

 irus, Hylseosanrus, and Iguanodon, the gigantic crocodile-lizards of the dry land; whose peculiarities of osteological 

 ucture distinguish them as clearly from the living terrestrial and amphibious saurians, as the opposite modifications 

 an aquatic life, characterize the extinct Enaliosaurians or marine lizards. The MEGALOSAURUS occurs in the 

 rer oolitic strata near Oxford. The HYUtOSAURUS and IGUANODON belong to the wealden deposits; the 

 mcr, or weald-lizard, is marked by its extraordinary dermal covering. Of the Iguanodon, Dr. Mantell states that it 

 jailed in bulk the large herbivorous mammalia, and was as massive in its proportions, for living exclusively on 

 ;etables, it must have had the abdominal region greatly developed. Its limbs must have been of proportionate size 

 1 strength to sustain and move so enormous a carcase; its hinder extremities prob bly resembled those of the 

 ipopotamus, while the fore feet appear to have been less bulky, and adapted for seizing and pulling down the foliage 

 J branches of trees; the remains of coniferous trees, arborescent ferns, and cyc-ideous plants, which are found 

 bedded with its remains, attest the nature of the flora adapted for its sustenance. 



I'he mammalia are represented by the MEGATHERIUM, a colossal sloth, whose remains occur abundantly in South 

 nerica. This genus belonged to an extinct family of Edentata, (so named from the absence of incisor teeth) and is 

 resented at the present day by the diminutive sloths, anteaters, and armadilloes. The gigantic fossil IRISH ELK, 

 lich far exceeded in magnitude iny living deer, has been found in the shell marl underlying the peat beds of 

 (land, and the Isle of Man; its remains have also been obtained from some parts of England, 



KYSOLDS, 171, STKAXD. 



