326 GEOLOGY OF THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 



characters of the Plesiosauri and Ichthyosauri. 

 A few vertebrae of Plesiosauri are the only 

 remains of these animals I have obtained from 

 the Island. 



Fossil Turtles. — Of che Ionian reptiles, water- 

 worn fragments of bones are the only vestiges 

 that have come under my notice. Some of these 

 fragments in all probability belong to the Trionyx 

 Bakewelli, a species which occurs in the Wealden 

 strata of Tilgate Forest,* and is characterised by 

 the granulated surface of the costal plates, and 

 a dermal covering of tortoise-shell, as is shown 

 by the imprints of the scales left on the bones. 

 Except in possessing a defensive integument of 

 this kind, this extinct chelonian must have re- 

 sembled the existing predaceous soft turtles ; and 

 doubtless like them inhabited the mud-banks of 

 rivers, and preyed upon the eggs and young of the 

 larger reptiles, and on the uniones and other 

 mollusca, the shells of which are often found asso- 

 ciated with its remains. 



Imprints on sandstone. — We must here con- 

 clude our description of the fossils that have 

 been discovered in the Wealden strata of the Isle 

 of Wight ; to attempt a full exposition of the 

 characters and relations of these organic remains, 



* Geology of the S.E. of England, p, 235. Medals of Creation, p. 778. 



