COP 



[57 ] 



COR 



his splendid Bridgewater Treatise : " In 

 variety of size and external form, the 

 coprolites resemble oblong pebbles or 

 kidney potatoes. They, for the most 

 part, vary from two to four inches in 

 length, and from one to two inches in 

 diameter. Some few are much larger, 

 and bear a due proportion to the gigantic 

 calibre of the largest ichthyosauri ; some 

 are flat and amorphous, as if the sub- 

 stance had been voided in a semifluid 

 state ; others are flattened by pressure 

 of the shale. Their usual colour is ash- 

 grey, sometimes interspersed with black, 

 and sometimes wholly black. Their sub- 

 stance is of a compact earthy texture, re- 

 sembling indurated clay, and having a 

 conchoidal and glassy fracture. Their 

 structure is in most cases tortuous, but 

 the number of coils is very unequal ; the 

 most common number is three. Some 

 coprolites, especially the small ones, 

 shew no traces of contortion. The 

 sections of these fsecal balls, show their 

 interior to be arranged in a folded plate, 

 wrapped spirally round from the centre 

 outwards, like the whorls of a turbinated 

 shell ; their exterior also retains the 

 corrugations and minute impressions, 

 which, in their plastic state, they may 

 have received from the intestines of the 

 living animals. Dispersed irregularly 

 throughout the petrified fseces, are the 

 scales, and occasionally the teeth and 

 bones of fishes, that seem to have passed 

 undigested through the bodies of the sau- 

 rians ; just as the enamel of teeth, and 

 sometimes fragments of bones are found 

 undigested both in the recent and fossil 

 album grsecum of hysenas." On the 

 shore at Lyme Regis, in Dorsetshire, 

 coprolites are found in great abundance, 

 lying scattered in the ground like potatoes. 

 The true character and real nature of the 

 coprolite was long misunderstood, having 

 formerly been called Juli, and believed to 

 be fossil fir cones. Coprolites are found 

 in all strata which contain the remains of 

 carnivorous reptiles. The real origin of 

 these coprolites is placed beyond all 

 doubt by their being found frequently 

 within the intestinal canal of fossil ske- 

 letons of ichthyosauri. The preservation 

 of such fsecal matter, and its lapidifica- 

 tion, result from the imperishable nature 

 of the phosphate of lime, one of the con- 

 stituents of bony matter. 



COPROM'TIC. Composed of coprolites ; re- 

 sembling coprolites ; containing copro- 

 lites. 



CO'RACOID. (from Kop, and tidoc, Gr.) 

 Resembling the beak of a crow. A name 

 given to the upper anterior point or pro- 

 cess of the scapula. 



CO'RAL. (xropaXXtov, Gr. corallium, Lat. 



corail, Fr. coralla, It. It is somewhat 

 marvellous to find Todd following John- 

 son in his description of coral, and stat- 

 ing it to be a plant.) The red coral is a 

 branched zoophyte, somewhat resembling 

 in miniature a tree deprived of its leaves 

 and twigs. It seldom exceeds one foot 

 in height, and is attached to the rocks by 

 a broad expansion or base. It consists 

 of a bright red, stony axis, invested with 

 a fleshy, or gelatinous substance of a pale 

 blue colour, which is studded over with 

 stellular polypi. Coral is composed of 

 carbonate of lime and animal matter. 

 The powers of the organic creation, 

 says Lyell, in modifying the form and 

 structure of the earth's crust, which 

 may be said to be undergoing repair, or 

 where new rock formations are continually 

 in progress, are most conspicuously dis- 

 played in the labours of the coral animals. 

 We may compare the operation of these 

 zoophytes in the sea to the effects pro- 

 duced on a smaller scale upon the land, 

 by the plants which generate peat. In 

 corals, the more durable materials of the 

 generation that has passed away serve as 

 the foundation on which living animals 

 are continuing to rear a similar structure. 

 Of the numerous species of zoophytes 

 which are engaged in the production of 

 coral banks, some of the most common 

 belong to the genera meandrina, caryo- 

 phyllia, millepora, and astrea, but espe- 

 cially the latter. It has been asked, 

 " From whence do these innumerable zoo- 

 phytes and molluscous animals procure 

 the lime, which, mixed with a small 

 quantity of animal matter, forms the 

 solid covering by which they are pro- 

 tected ? Have they the power of separat- 

 ing it from other substances, or the still 

 more extraordinary faculty of producing 

 it from simple elements ? The latter I 

 consider the more probable ; for the 

 polypi which accumulate rocks of coral 

 have no power of locomotion ; their 

 growth is rapid, and the quantity of cal- 

 careous matter they produce, in a short 

 space of time, can scarcely be supposed 

 to exist in the waters of the ocean to 

 which they have access, as sea-water con- 

 tains but a minute portion of lime." Le 

 Sueur, who observed them in the West 

 Indies, describes these polypes, when ex- 

 panded in calm weather at the bottom of 

 the sea, as covering their stony receptacles 

 with a continuous sheet of most brilliant 

 colours. Ehrenberg, the distinguished 

 German naturalist, was so struck with 

 the splendid spectacle presented by living 

 polyparia covering every portion of the 

 bottom of the Red Sea, that he is said to 

 have exclaimed, " Where is the paradise 

 of flowers that can rival in variety and 

 i 



