THE MESOZOIC AGES. 215 



Curious that these composite creatures belong to a 

 later period of the Mesozoic than the typical Ichthyo- 

 saurs and Plesiosaurs, as if the characters at one 

 time separated in these genera had united in their 

 successors. 



One of the relatives of the Plesiosaurs, the Pliosaur, 

 of which genus several species of great size are known 

 perhaps realized in the highest degree possible the 

 idea of a huge marine predaceous reptile. The head 

 in some of the species was eight feet in length, armed 

 with conical teeth a foot long. The neck was not 

 only long, but massive and powerful, the paddles, four 

 in number, were six or seven feet in length and must 

 have urged the vast bulk of the animal, perhaps forty 

 feet in extent, through the water with prodigious 

 speed. The capacious chest and great ribs show a 

 powerful heart and lungs. Imagine such a creature 

 raising its huge head twelve feet or more out of water, 

 and rushing after its prey, impelled with perhaps the 

 most powerful oars ever possessed by any animal. 

 We may be thankful that such monsters, more terrible 

 than even the fabled sea-serpent, are unknown in ouy 

 days. Buckland, I think, at one time indulged in the 

 jeu d' 'esprit of supposing an Ichthyosaur lecturing on 

 the human skull. " You will at once perceive," said 

 the lecturer, "that the skull before us belonged to 

 one of the lower orders of animals. The teeth are 

 very insignificant, the power of the jaws trifling, and 

 altogether it seems wonderful how the creature could 

 have procured food." We cannot retort on thn 



