62 EXTINCT MONSTERS 



whom we have already alluded. But England had its share of 

 illustrious men, too, though lesser lights compared to the founder 

 of comparative anatomy, such as Sir Eichard Owen, on whom 

 the mantle of his friend Cuvier has fallen; Conybeare, De la 

 Beche, Dean Buckland, and Huxley. 



These scientific men, aided by the untiring labours of many 

 enthusiastic collectors of organic remains, have been the means 

 of solving the riddle of the fish-lizard, and of introducing him to 

 the public. By this time there is, perhaps, no creature among 

 the host of Antediluvian types better known than this reptile. 



The remains of fish-lizards have attracted the attention of 

 collectors and describers of fossils for nearly two centuries past. 

 The vertebrae, or " cup-bones," as they are often called, of which 

 the spinal column was composed, were figured by Scheuchzer, 

 in an old work entitled Qiterelce Pisdum ; and, at that time, 

 they were supposed to be the vertebrae of fishes. In the year 

 1814 Sir Everard Home described the fossil remains of this 

 creature, in a paper read before the Eoyal Society, and published 

 in their Philosophical Transactions. This fossil was first discovered 

 in the Lias strata of the Dorsetshire coast. Other papers followed 

 till the year 1820. We are chiefly indebted to De la Beche and 

 Conybeare for pointing out and illustrating the nature of the fish- 

 lizard ; and that at a time when the materials for so doing were 

 far more scanty than they are now. Mr. Charles Konig, Mr. 

 Thomas Hawkins, Dean Buckland, Sir Philip Egerton, and Pro- 

 fessor Owen have all helped to throw light on the structure and 

 habits of these old tyrants of the seas of that age, which is known 

 as the Jurassic period. They lived on, however, to the succeeding 

 or Cretaceous period, during which our English chalk was forming ; 

 but the Liassic age was the one in which they flourished most 

 abundantly, and developed the greatest variety. 



