FOSSIL REPTILES OF DORSET. 7 



ORDER LACERTILIA, Owen. 



The Lizard family, with a few exceptions, is furnished with two 

 pairs of limbs ; the teeth are usually planted in the grooves of the 

 jaws without distinct sockets (some extinct forms constitute an 

 exception), and the body covered with horny scales. The serpenti- 

 f orm slow-worm is a true lizard, and there are other members of this 

 family whose fore or hind limbs are wanting. Protorosaurus 

 Speneri from the Permian rocks is the oldest-known Lacertilian. 

 Linnaeus included the Salamanders in this Order, but Cuvier, while 

 accepting the Order, rejected them, and they have never again been 

 replaced, and rightly so, for they are Amphibian. 



GENUS NUTHETES, Owen. 



NUTHETES DESTRUCTOR, Owen. 



Nuthetes destructor was about the size of the Great Land 

 Monitor of India its teeth are finely serrated before and behind as 

 in the Megalosaurus. It was found by the late Mr. W. R. Brodie 

 in the Middle Purbecks at Durleston Bay, Swanage. 



GENUS SAURILLUS, Owen. 



SAURILLUS OBTUSUS, Oicen. 



A new genus established by Sir Richard Owen on the evidence 

 of the jaw and teeth of this little lizard, which was about the 

 size of Lacerta agilis. There are six longitudinal foramina on 

 the outer side of the jaw, indicating that it had a scaly covering, 

 and the reptilian condition of the salivary organs. It was in all 

 probability insectivorous. Found in a thin layer of calcareous 

 mud with an average thickness of nine inches in company with 

 Nuthetes destructor and three other new reptilians and some 

 mammalian bones. These are the first traces, perhaps, of remains 

 which can be referred to as typical Lacertilia. Found in the 

 Feather-bed of Durleston Bay, Swanage. 



GENUS MACELLODON, Owen. 



MACELLODON BRODIEI, Owen. 

 Another small Lizard, established by Sir Richard Owen, like the 



