328 PETRIFACTIONS AND THEIR TEACHINGS. CHAP. III. 



formed a serrated dermal crest. The coracoids, scapulae, and 

 ribs, indicate a pectoral arch, in which were blended the 

 osteological characters of the Monitors and Crocodilians. 



MEGALOSAURUS BUCKLANDI. Wall-case A, lowermost shelf. 

 The oolitic limestone of Stonesfield in Oxfordshire has long 

 been celebrated for its fossil remains, and especially for the 

 teeth and bones of a carnivorous reptile almost equal in bulk 

 to the Iguanodon. Several teeth of this kind are figured in 

 Lhwyd's " Lithophylacii Brit. Ichn." but the description of 

 the lower jaw with teeth, several vertebrae, and bones of 

 the pectoral arch and extremities, by Dr. Buckland in 1824, 

 (" Geol. Trans."" vol. i. new series), was the first scientific 

 determination of the nature and relations of this reptile, 

 which, from its gigantic dimensions, has been named the 

 Megalosaurus. Before the publication of Dr. Buckland's 

 memoir, similar teeth and bones had been discovered in 

 Tilgate Forest, and were described in my "Fossils of the 

 South Downs;" a work in which was first pointed out the 

 general analogy between the fossil terrestrial animals and 

 plants of Stonesfield, and Tilgate Forest. 1 



There are in the British Museum a considerable number of 

 the teeth, and several bones of the Megalosaurus, from the 

 Wealden of the South-East of England, but these specimens 

 are not at present arranged with the reptilian remains under 

 review. There are also some stupendous coracoid bones, part 

 of a clavicle, and a femur, of the same species of reptile from 

 Stonesfield, which are for the present deposited in Room II. 

 Wall-case 0. 



In Room III. Wall-case A, there is placed on the lowermost 

 shelf, a cast of the portion of the lower jaw in the possession 

 of Dr. Buckland, which was presented to me by that eminent 

 palaeontologist. There is likewise a femur of the Megalo- 

 saurus from Tilgate Forest, in Wall-case C, (ante, p. 227,) 

 and a portion of a large sacrum of this reptile, from 

 Stonesfield. 



The osteological characters of the known parts of the Mega- 

 losaurus are so fully described and illustrated in Dr. Buck- 

 land's "Bridgewater Treatise," (PI. XXIII. p. 234), that a 

 brief notice only is requisite. 



" Illustrations of the Geology of Sussex," p. 59. 





