380 



REPTILIA. 



contend with Megalosaurus for a scanty supply of more stimu- 

 lating diet." 



Megalosaurus is a gigantic Oolitic Reptile, which occurs also 

 in the Cretaceous series (Weald Clay). Its length has been 

 estimated at between forty and fifty feet, the femur and tibia 

 each measuring about three feet in length. As the head of 

 the femur is set on nearly at right angles with the shaft, whilst 

 all the long bones contain large medullary cavities, there can 

 be no doubt but that Megalosaurus was terrestrial in its 

 habits. That it was carnivorous and destructive in the highest 

 degree is shown by the powerful, pointed, and trenchant teeth. 



The teeth in Megalosaurus are conical, compressed, with 

 finely -serrated edges. The fore -limbs are extraordinarily 



Fig. 327. Cranium of Megalosaurus, restored. (After Professor Phillips.) 



smaller than the hind-limbs. The teeth do not become worn 

 by mastication ; and there appears to have been no exoskeleton. 

 One of the most remarkable of the Deinosauria is the little 

 Compsognathus longipes of the Lithographic Slate of Solenhofen, 

 regarded by Professor Huxley as the type of a special group 

 (Compsognatha) of his order Ornithoscelida. The special 

 characters distinguishing this group are, that the cervical region 

 of the spine is long, and the femur is shorter than the tibia ; 

 whereas in the typical Deinosauria the neck is relatively short, 

 and the femur is as long as, or longer than, the tibia. Comp- 

 sognathus is not remarkable for its size, which does not seem 

 to have been much more than two feet, but for the striking 

 affinities which it exhibits to the true Birds. The head of 

 Compsognathus was furnished with toothed jaws, and supported 



