26 FOSSIL REPTILES OP DORSET. 



five and a-half inches. This bone is much flattened out at its distal 

 end. Thefemur, which is longer than the humerus, has three 

 flattened angular bones articulating with the distal end, which has 

 three corresponding notches to receive them ; these bones meet the 

 tarsal bones of the paddle. The coracoids are firmly joined to one 

 another and lengthened out transversely to the axis of the trunk. 

 The length of the neck removes all doubt of its being a Plesiosaur, to 

 which some physical peculiarities might have given rise, such as the 

 superior relative length and massiveness of the humerus and femur, 

 which latter has a well developed trochanter for the attachment of 

 muscles, the lengthening out of the tibia and fibula with a third 

 (supernumerary) bone transversely so as to give fuller play to the 

 swimming powers of the owner. In the summary of his able paper 

 Mr. Hulke expresses an opinion that the departure of this Saurian 

 from the Plesiosaurian type might warrant its removal to a 

 separate genus. 



PLESIOSAURUS CONYBEARI, Sollas. 



The nearly complete and very fine specimen of this Plesiosaurus 

 was found in the Ammonites obtusus zone, at Black Ven in the 

 Lower Lias near Charmouth. The length of the skull is about 

 eighteen inches. Teeth slender, conical, slightly recurved, and the 

 crowns finely striated below the base, varying greatly in size, the 

 largest being near the premaxillary suture, behind this they begin 

 to diminish in size, while those further back dwindle to pointed 

 tubercles ; there are about 20 on each side of the upper-jaw. 

 There is a continuous series of 66 vertebrae, of which thirty-eight 

 are cervical, twenty-one dorsal, two sacral, and only five caudal, 

 of which several are missing. The length of the neck is six feet 

 eleven inches ; the humerus is larger than the femur, in which 

 respect it resembles Pies, macromus. 



PLESIOSAURUS PLICATUS, Phillips. 



Terminal faces of the vertebrae very gently concave, in some cases 

 appearing almost plane. Vertebrae only of this species have as 

 yet been found Kimmeridge Clay, Weymouth, Nos. 44636, 

 41955, 41956, British Museum unless an extensive series of 



