FOSSIL EEPTILES OF DORSET. 27 



Plesiosaurian remains belonging to one individual, rescued through 

 the intelligent supervision of our fellow member, Nelson Kichardson, 

 Esq., and Mrs. Richardson, of Monte Video House, Chickerel, 

 from a bed of Oxford clay near Weymouth can be referred to this 

 species, and of which I have very little doubt. Nearly the whole 

 of the spinal column is preserved. The neck is extremely long, the 

 bones of which decrease in size as they approach the head, which is 

 missing ; the axis is not anchylosed to the atlas, whose anterior 

 articular surface is a cup capable of receiving an occipital condyle 

 of small dimensions not larger than a boy's marble. The 

 united lengths of all the vertebrae are eight feet three inches, 

 and allowing for the absence of some dorsal vertebrae, the 

 original length of the animal could not be less than nine or ten 

 feet from the snout to the tip of the tail, which was short. 

 Many of the dorsal vertebrae have preserved their anchylosed 

 neuropophyses and perpendicular neural spine. One has the 

 pleurapophysis attached to the centrum, but not anchylosed, and a 

 caudal vertebra has retained both neuropophyses, which stretch 

 downward posteriorly at a very low angle. The terminal faces of 

 the centra are elliptical, broader than they are long, very slightly 

 concave and in some almost plane. Both the fore and hind limbs 

 are nearly complete ; the femur, which is the largest, measures 

 thirteen and a-half inches in length and seven and a-half in breadth 

 at its proximal end. Ulnae, radii, tibiae, fibulae, carpals, tarsals, 

 phalanges, portions of the coracoid, scapula, ilia, ischia, a large 

 series of ribs and 72 cervical, dorsal, and caudal vertebrae leave but 

 little of this headless trunk unrecovered. I hope this interesting 

 fossil may ere long be described by Mr. Hulke. 



The above will shew what a valuable acquisition Mr. and 

 Mrs. Kichardson have made to the Palaeontology of the county. 

 PLESIOSAURUS CARINATUS, Phillips. 



A small species with neat well-defined vertebrae. The articulat- 

 ing faces elliptical, plain, pitted in the centre. Represented by 

 vertebrae. Oyster Bed, Portland. (British Museum, No. 41216, 

 41238, 41405, 45904.) 



