ROOM III. FOSSIL TURTLES OF THE WEALDEN. 1.39 



plastron, must have closely resembled the existing species of 

 Trionyces; and doubtless, like its modern prototypes, inha- 

 bited muddy deltas and estuaries, and preyed on the eggs 

 and young of the large reptiles, and the soft bodies of the 

 mollusks, with whose remains its bones are associated in the 

 strata of Tilgate Forest. 1 



1 The TRETOSTERNUM BAKEWELLI is described as T. punctatum by 

 Professor Owen in his "Report on British Fossil Reptiles," 1841 ; with 

 the following remark : " Portions of ribs of the Tretosternum puncta- 

 tum, which from their specific punctation and sculpturing of the outer 

 surface have been referred to the genus Trionyx, have been discovered 

 by Dr. Mantell in the Wealden of Tilgate, ' Illustrations of the Geology 

 of Sussex,' 4to, PL VI. figs. 1, 3, 5." Not the slightest allusion is made 

 to my having figured and clearly pointed out the remarkable characters 

 of this extinct Chelonian, many years before Professor Owen had written 

 a single line on any palaeontologieal subject. 



A& the original discoverer and interpreter of this Turtle, I proposed 

 to distinguish it by the specific name Bakewelli (" Geology S. E. of 

 England," p. 255), as a tribute of respect to the late Mr. Robert Bake- 

 well, the eminent geologist, whose " Introduction " was one of the 

 earliest and ablest English works for the student in geology. With a 

 melancholy pleasure I once more associate the name of my lamented 

 friend with a department of palaeontology in which he felt peculiarly 

 interested : a privilege, " which, besides the claim of priority, in the 

 honest result of labour devoted to the elucidation of the subject." * 



(Quoted from Professor Owen's Brit. Assoc. Report, p. 163.) 



