330 PETRIFACTIONS AND THEIR TEACHINGS. CHAP. III. 



examples, more or less entire, have been collected. 1 The first 

 discovered specimen, which clearly demonstrates the peculiar 

 construction of the sacrum, is figured and described by Dr. 

 Buckland : a portion of a sacrum from Stonesfield, in Wall- 

 case G, is the only example in the British Museum. 



The Vertebrae have the same remarkable development of 

 the neural arch and platform as in the Iguanodon, but the 

 bodies are rounded, not laterally compressed ; and there are 

 other obvious differences. 



The Coracoids differ entirely from those of the Iguanodon 

 and Hylseosaurus, and closely resemble the corresponding 

 bones in the Monitors. The Clavicle bears considerable 

 analogy to that of the Iguanodon. 



The Femur is easily recognised by two large rounded 

 trochanters of nearly equal size below the head of the bone : 

 its shaft, which like that of the Iguanodon has a large medul- 

 lary cavity, is subcylindrical and slightly arched. There is a 

 model of a metatarsal or metacarpal bone, twelve inches long, 

 in Wall-case A : the original is in the museum at Oxford. 



The decided trenchant character of the teeth leaves no 

 doubt that the Megalosaurus was highly carnivorous ; it ap- 

 pears to have been a terrestrial animal, and probably preyed 

 on the smaller reptiles, and on the young of the colossal 

 Iguanodon, Hylseosaurus, and others of its contemporaries. 



PELOROSAURUS 2 CoNYBEAREi. Wall-case C. In the lower- 

 most compartment on the left side of this case there are four 

 very large and remarkably perfect caudal vertebrae, of a rich 

 umber colour, and though completely petrified, the neural 

 arch, and the lateral processes, are almost as perfect as when 

 the bones were recent. These magnificent fossils were pro- 

 miscuously imbedded in a block of fawn-coloured sandstone 

 in Cuckfield Quarry, together with the bifurcated chevron 

 bone, and the two detached processes, placed above them. I 

 chiselled away the sandstone, extricated the vertebrae, and 

 succeeded in developing them in their present perfect condi- 

 tion. When first obtained I ascribed them to the Iguanodon ; 

 in fact, every large bone found in the same quarry was natu- 



1 See "Brit. Assoc. Eep. Foss. Reptiles," 1841, p. 105. 



2 Pelorosaurus; from Tl4\wp,pelor, monstrous, or unusually gigantic. 



