SEA-SERPENTS 



193 



no less than seven different skeletons of these monsters in sight 

 at once ! The same authority mentions that the Museum of Yale 

 College contains remains of not less than 1400 distinct indi- 

 viduals. In some of these the skeleton is nearly if not quite 

 complete ; so that every part of its structure can be determined 

 with almost absolute certainty. 



According to the late Professor Cope of Pennsylvania University, 

 who made a special study of this group of extinct saurians, fifty- 



l 2 



FIG. 69. Lower tooth of Leiodon. 1. Side view. 2. Profile. 



one species have been discovered in North America, in the States 

 of New Jersey, Alabama, Kansas, North Carolina, Mississippi, 

 and Nebraska. The same authority has shown that they were 

 characterised by a wonderful elongation of form, especially of the 

 tail ; that their heads were large, flat, and conical in shape, with 

 eyes directed partly upward ; that they were furnished with two 

 pairs of paddles like the flippers of a whale. With these flippers, 

 and the eel-like strokes of their flattened tail, they swam with 



o 



