90 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT. 



of the neck (Fig. 25), they may be conveniently known 

 as Long-Necked Sea-Lizards. Should, however, any of 

 our readers have a fancy for a shorter and more tech- 

 nical term, there is one ready to his hand in the name 

 Plesiosaur. Speaking of the long neck of these reptiles 

 reminds the writer of an answer he received, when 

 examiner at the Calcutta University, from a Bengali, in 

 reply to a question as to the chief points of difference 

 between a Fish-Lizard, or Ichthyosaur, and a Plesiosaur. 

 The misguided student, apparently froni having read 

 that portions of the fossilised integuments of the Ich- 

 thyosaurs had been obtained, answered the question by 

 stating that Ichthyosaurs were reptiles with a skin, 

 but without a neck, while Plesiosaurs had a neck but 

 no skin. 



Like the Fish-Lizards, the Long-Necked Sea-Lizards 

 lived throughout the whole of the Secondary period. 

 Their skeletons, although less common than those of 

 the Fish- Lizards, are preserved in an equally fine state 

 of preservation in the Lias clays of Lyme-Ptegis and 

 Whitby. Several of the species from the Lias are of 

 comparatively small dimensions, not attaining a length 

 of more than some 8 or 10 feet ; but other kinds, more 

 especially those found in the higher Oolitic and Cre- 

 taceous rocks, were of enormous dimensions, reaching 

 to a length of 40 feet. 



Our earliest knowledge of these strange creatures 

 was mainly derived from the observations of Cony- 

 beare and Buckland, made in the earlier decades of 

 the present century. So monstrous and strange did 



