FOSSIL ANIMALS. 163 



sometimes its own species ; for an ichthyosaurus has been 

 dug out of the cliffs at Lyme Regis, England, with part of 

 a small one in his stomach. This creature was sometimes 

 thirty or forty feet long. 



Another of these fossil animals is called the Plesiosaurus, 

 a word which means, like a lizard. It appears to have 

 formed an intermediate link between the crocodile and the 

 ichthyosaurus. It is remarkable for the great length of its 

 neck, which must have been longer than that of any living 

 animal. 



There was another curious animal- called the Pterodac- 

 tyle, with gigantic wings. The skull of this animal must 

 have been very large in proportion to the size of the skel- 

 eton, the jaws themselves being almost as large as its 

 body. They were furnished with sharp hooked teeth. 

 The orbits of the eyes were very large : hence, it is pro- 

 bable that it was a nocturnal animal, like the bat, which, 

 at first sight, il very much resembles in the wings, and 

 other particulars. 



The word pterodactyle signifies wing-fingered ; for it 

 had a hand of three fingers at the bend of each of its 

 wings, by which, probably, it hung to the branches of 

 trees. Its food seems to have been large dragon- flies, bee- 

 tles, and other insects, the remains of some of which have 

 been found close to the skeleton of the animal. The lar- 

 gest of the pterodactyies were of the size of a raven. 



The bones of the creatures we have been describing, 

 were all found in England, France, and Germany, except 

 those of the megatherium, which was found in South 

 America. In the United States, the bones of 'an animal, 

 twice as big as the elephant, called the Mastodon, or Mam- 

 moth, have been dug up in various places ; and a nearly 

 perfect skeleton is to be seen at Peale's museum, in Phila- 

 delphia. 



Now it must be remembered that the bones we have 

 been speaking of, are found deeply imbedded in the earth, 



