366 QUARTERLY JOURNAL 



MISCELLANIES. 



THE ZEUGLODON CETOIDES (Owen). 



In our July number, we figured and described the teeth of the 

 Zeuglodoti cetoides of Owen, with the intention of proceeding with 

 the descriptions of other parts as we have prepared them, or as we 

 have disclosed them by the removal of the matrix. Our space is 

 now entirely occupied with other matters, and we therefore transfer 

 that subject to our first number for 1846. We, however, take this 

 opportunity to notice Mr. Koch's specimen, which has been put up 

 in New-York. It is undoubtedly made up in part, and put up erro- 

 neously. Thus the paddles are the cast of a chambered shell, A 

 portion of the skeleton, placed for the head, is probably a part of 

 the pelvis, and the lower jaw is extremely defective ; and to ensure 

 a wonderful animal, parts of two or more skeletons seem to have 

 been put together. It is called a Sea-serpent ; but every part of the 

 skeleton shows that it is not a serpent or a lizard, as both these 

 families have vertebras with a ball and socket joint. The paddles 

 which are affixed show that the owner has but a scanty knowledge 

 of comparative anatomy, inasmuch as they have not the slightest 

 analogy to those structures as they are found in nature. 



Our skeleton has the base of the lower jaw ; the anterior terminal 

 portions of both jaws, with teeth ; a portion of a scapula, with the 

 heads of the humerus ; an entire humerus ; a perfect femur ; a 

 distinct portion of a forearm, radius and ulna ; a portion of a pelvis, 

 with about seventy feet of vertebra, which were found in a line 

 together, and numbered as they were removed from the rock. The 

 neck is evidently long, and comparatively slender and serpentine ; 

 yet the jaw and other bones prove it a mammiferous animal. 



We informed Mr. Kocii that his paddles were parts of a cham- 

 bered shell ; and that the bone which he called the head, was a part 

 of the pelvis. Wc make these remarks, not with a view of diminish- 

 ing the value of Mr. K.'s specimen : what we wish, is that this 

 remarkable relic should be properly put up, and every thing removed 

 which does not belong to it. 



