52 



Lariosauridce. 



Most of the " Sea-Dragons," both the long and the short- 

 necked forms, were obtained from the Lias of Street, Somerset- 

 shire ; Lyme Regis, Dorsetshire ; Barro vv-on-Soar, Leicestershire ; 



FIG. 70. Palatal aspect of the cranium of Nothosaurus mirabilis (Munster) ; Muschelkalk, 

 Germany (i nat. size), pmx, premaxilla; war, posterior nares ; vo, vomer; mx, 

 maxilla; pal, palatine; pt, pterygoid ; a, ala of same ; 6, quadratic ridge ; qu, quad- 

 rate bone ; oc, occipital condyle. The posterior extremity of the palatine was pro- 

 bably formed by a transverse bone, but the suture is not visible. (Table-case, No. 1 7.) 



and Whitby in Yorkshire ; or from the Oxford Clay of Peter- 

 borough and Weymoufch, and the Kimmeridge Clay of Dorset- 

 shire ; in fact, their geological and geographical distribution 

 seem to have been almost identical. 



Table-case, 

 No. 7. 



Table-case, 

 No. 7. 



FIG. 71. Right lateral aspect of the skull of Nothosaurus mirabilis (Munster), reduced ; 

 from the Muschelkalk of Germany. 



The LARIOSAURID^;, represented by the Italian Lariosaurus 

 and the German genus Neusticosaurus, appear to connect the 

 marine PLESIOSAURIDJ; with the freshwater and terrestrial 

 NOTHOSAURIDJ;. The skull was short, the neck relatively long ; 

 the humerus short, the femur elongated, and the terminal 

 phalangeals were furnished with claws. 



Casts of Lariosaurus Balsami (Fig. 69) (see coloured cast 

 on wall) and two original and nearly entire skeletons of 

 Neusticosaurus pusillus from the Trias of Stuttgart may be seen 

 in the cases. 



In Nothosaurus the skull is long and narrow with the post- 

 orbital larger than the preorbital portion and with very long 

 and narrow supratemporal fossae ; the upper teeth are numerous, 

 and the 5th and 6th maxillary teeth much enlarged; the 



