QEOPHILUS. 



OEOSAURUS. 



1000 



t.Koi'Hii.rs. [i 



ii'il N A. a name sometimes given to the Dahlia, but 

 improperly. 



UEO T.YrlH'S, Illiger's name for the Lemmings of Cuvier. 



[MURIDJC.] 



iSAURUS, Cuvier's name for a sub-genus of Saurians, found in 

 a fossil state only, and considered by him aa intermediate between the 

 IDMMdUM Monitors. The remains of this animal were first 

 obtained from the whitcliaaat Moiiheim, in Francouia, by Summering, 

 mid named by him Lacerla In a paper in the ' Nova Acta 



phyaico-medica Academia! (',i'<n.re;e. Leopoldino-Carolinn) Natural 

 CurioKormn,' Dr. Uitgeu bos proposed a new name for this with 

 several other fossil animals. On this paper a writer in the ' Zoological 

 Journal' has the following remark*: "The first of Dr. Ritgen'a animals 

 is the Lartrta yiynntra of Summering, i/otujiaitnu of Conybearc and 

 Parkinson, for which Dr. Ritgen, without assigning a single reason for 

 the change of name, is pleased to adopt the more than sesquipedalian 



i" Ji<ili/imnotaur<u crocwliloidtf. This appellation however may 

 serve, in some degree, to explain his views of its affinities and original 

 Invitation, inasmuch as it shows that he regards it as a lacertino 

 animal resembling a crocodile and inhabiting salt-water marshes, 

 intermediate therefore between the extinct i'naliosaui-i, or Sea-Lizards, 

 and the living Crocodiles of fresh-water streams. It is, moreover, the 

 (feotaurut of Cuvier's ' Ossemens Fossiles.' There is some little 

 . ii-cnrity here, which wo will endeavour to dispel. That Cuvier' a 

 name, lieotaurtu, should be retained according to the laws of nomen- 

 f hit nre, there can be no doubt; and it appears that this provisional 

 name waa given, not in reference to the habita of the extinct lizard, 



i use Cuvier's own words ('par allusion it Terre, mere des 

 ') by an allusion to Terra, the Earth Ge (Fij) of the Greeks, 

 tin- laliled mother of the Giants. Indeed the sclerotic plates still 

 r !... lining in the portion of the cranium figured by Cuvier in hia 

 Ossemens Fossiles,' could not have escaped the observation of that 

 a -nte zoologist (who was so eminently olive to the laws of co-existence), 

 aa indicating aquatic habits. That he considered it subgenerioally 

 different from Musasaurta appears from the following observations : 

 Immediately after the allusion to the origin of the name, Cuvier says, 

 '-I cannot retain for it the epithet Giyantnu (Je tie pettx lui laisser 

 IVpithcte giganteeque) ; for, in the great genus Laccrta we have 



already the animal of Haestrieht, or Moituaurui, which greatly stir- 

 paucd it, and there is also another (the Mryaloiiiurus) which is very 

 -n|NTi<ir in fizo (nous avons il'nbord 1'anunal de Maastricht, oit 

 MiHuuiiMnu, quo lc surpttme de bmnronp, et nous allons en voir mi 

 aiitre le M 'fyalniatiriu qui lui est anssi trcs superieur).' " 



Again, in a note to tin- prrvioiH article in the 'UHseinens Fowiiles,' 



' With revard to the fossil animal of Mnh -ini 



<<;-uj), whirli M. fir S. iiiniiTing bos also regarded a.i identiiral 



with that of Mnmtriclit (Monmiiirui), Ve shall see in a lucceeding 



nili.V that it differs from the Moestricht animal in many respects. 



M. Kcnnnnn von Meyer, in his most useful work ' Palscologioa 



ynr flejchichto <lcr Erde und ihrer Ueschnpfe' ( 8vo. Frankfurt, 



. widely separates the two iiub-feticra. The first, (,'rotaunu, he 



!iti-- by tiriaattrui frimmrrinijii, syn. Lactrta tj\<jni,i.,< 



, HalfUmnotavnu croco<liloi<lr of Ititgen. The second, 



Mow* " nirochampun, Wnglc-r, ho exemplifies by 



Mianinurut t'amperl, P.MP. .'/. llnfmaniii, /Mctrta i/<<iau!rn. Sommer- 



-.111 Tin-it (in part). In his 'Sy..t.in d< r Viisnilen Sanri.-r,' 



M I, :'h fosnil Saurians he diviMin into four iu'dion*, denoted by the 



A, B, C, and D, he places <rtoiaurvi under section A (Saurier 



mil Zchen Kbnlich deucn an den lebcnden Sanriern), and Moituaurut 



under section C (Saurier mit flossartigen Gliedmaasen)." 



The remains upon which Cuvier founded bis sul>-genus were found 

 in the canton Meulenhardt, at the depth of 10 feet, and a few paces 

 fmm tho crocodile described by Cuvier (Oavial of Monhcim and of 

 IIoll : 'Ow. Foa.' torn. v.pp. 120-125 ; Crocwlilui jtriiciu of Sommer- 

 ing; ,f,ol<xhn priirut of Hermann von Meyer), by the labourers 



Geoiain r;.i ;From Cuvlei'i figure*. ) * 



a, h, pnrt of the hrad, \\liich ba* been cnmpromcd ; Rome of the irlrrntic 

 plntcn arc ntill Irft within the orbit, an nrrn in I- if. l> ; e, rf, r, terth \ihn-h IKK) 

 prcwrvrd their hard hilling brown enamel; /, f, vertcbrre ; /e.xhiliii- 

 of the cnlntnn ; nt-ar the last vcrtrbrip ore the remain* of the prUi< and ft'timni ; 

 i, five vertebra* like the flint of those In Viff. /. Fragments of ribs in i! 

 re seen near both sett. 



employed to work the mines of granular iron (fcr en grains) whieh 

 fills the fissures of the strata of calcareous schist. 



Sommcring, to whom the Count of Reysach gave these precious 

 fragments, to use Cuvier's expression (for in consequence of the 

 nature of the bed in which they were discovered they were not well 

 prexervid), published an accurate account of them in the 'Mrnp.in 

 of Munich ' for 1816, accompanied by a lithographic illustration, 



