FIRST CRETACEOUS PERIOD. 



Synopsis of the Animal Kingdom (exclusive of Annul ata) during the 

 First Cretaceous Period. 



One genus of Crustacea (Archcconiscus) being added, gives the 

 total number of genera known as composing tke fauna 214, of 

 which 70 had not existed in any previous period. 



The two genera of birds called Paleoornis and Cimoliornis were 

 webfooted, and were the first of the order which had yet appeared. 

 The Archseoniscus was of the order o i isopodous Crustacea. 



Independently of the other classes, the number of species of 

 mollusca and radiata alone catalogued and described is 851. An 

 example of the mollusca is given in fig. 15. 



416. Among the reptiles of this period were two of monstrous 

 size, the Iguanodon and Hylteosaurus. The former, which has 

 taken its name from some remote resemblance to the Iguana, a 

 land-lizard of intertropical countries, had a body as massive as 

 that of the elephant, measuring, when full grown, about 30 feet 

 in length. It was herbivorous, feeding on the foliage of the fern?, 

 cicadere, and conifers, which constituted the flora of the period. 



The Hyloeosaurus, scarcely less in magnitude, was also an 

 herbivorous reptile.* 



Besides these, the coasts abounded in tortoises ; and reptiles of 

 nine other generic forms, including the last of that strange class 

 of flying reptiles, the Pterodactyle, which never reappeared on the 

 earth after this period. 



417. The land was richly clothed with vegetation. A catalogue 

 of the plants has been published by M. Brongniart, who observes 

 that the generic vegetable forms were nearly the same as in the 



Mantell Wonders of Geology p. 437. 



105 



