Sauropterygia Plesiosauridcu. 



47 



PLESIOSAUBIDJ:. In Wall-cases Nos. 9 and 10, and in Table- piiosaurus. 

 case No. 6, are placed the remains of one of our largest marine Wall-case, 

 reptiles, the Piiosaurus, from the Kimmeridge Clay, near Ely, No - 13 - 

 and also from Dorsetshire. We have no entire skeleton of this Table-case, 

 animal, but the cast of a swimming-paddle (the original of 



No. 6. 



Fro. 63. Sauropterygian mandibles. A, Peloneustes philarchus (Seeley) ; from the 

 Oxford Clay, g. B, Thaumatosaurus indicus (Lydekker) ; Upper Jurassic of India, . 

 c, Plesiosaurus dolichodirus (Conybeare) ; from the Lower Lias, Lyme Kegis. 



which is preserved in the Dorchester Museum) measures 7 feet 

 in length ; its jaw was 6 feet long, and one of its teeth was 15 

 inches in length. It had a shorter neck than the Plesiosaurus, 

 but was probably less fish-like in aspect than Ichthyosaurus, 

 which latter reptile it outrivalled in point of size. 



In Wall-case No. 13, and in Table-cases Nos. 6, 7, 8, are Plesio- 

 arranged examples of the extinct group of marine reptiles, the saurus. 

 PLESIOSAURIA (see Figs. 64, 65, pp. 48, 49). They are distinguished ^ a 

 at once by the great development of the neck, which is composed Table-cases, 

 of numerous vertebrae. The head is comparatively small in Nos. 6, 7, 8. 

 size ; the orbits are large ; the limbs being shaped externally 



