November 1, 1890.] 



KNOWLEDGE. 



243 



^^ AN ILLUSTRATED "^^ 



MAGAZINE OF SCIENCE: 



SIMPLY WORDED— EXACTLY DESCRIBED 



LONDON: NOVEMBER 1, 1890. 



CONTENTS. 



Giant Land Reptiles. By R. Lvdekker, B.A.Cantab. ... 243 

 The Breathing Organs of Plants. By .1. Pektland Smith, 



M.A.,B.Sc 246 



Coloured Stars. By J. E. Gore, F.R.A.S 241) 



The Bed-Bug.— in. By E. A. Butler 251 



Notices of Books 253 



The Annular Nebula in Lyra. By .V. C. Ranvard ... 253 

 The Coal-Fields of Central France. By G. W. Bulman, 



M.A., B.Sc 254 



Letters :— G. Daniel ; G. Parkinson ; F. Pincott ; A. B. 



MacDowall ; G. E. LuMSDEK... 257 



The Face of the Sky for November. By Herbert 



Sadler, F.R.A.S. 259 



Whist Column. By F. S. Hdghes, B.A.Cantab 260 



Chess Column. Conducted by I. Gunsberg 261 



GIANT LAND REPTILES. 



]jy R. Lydekkek, B.A.Cantai!. 

 (('(intiniu'd from pnije 225.) 



THE third great group of Giant Land Reptile.s was 

 first definitely brought under the notice of the 

 scientific world by the late Dean Buckland, the 

 celebrated Professor of Geology in the University of 

 Oxford, as far back as the year 1821. The Pro- 

 fessor had observed that in the Stonesfield slate of Oxford- 

 shire, to which allusion has already been made in the first 

 part of this article, there were 

 not uncommonly found teeth of 

 the peculiar type of the one 

 shown ill woodcut 4 ; although 

 many of them were of con- 

 siderably larger dimension than 

 the figured specimen. It will 

 be seen from the figure that 

 thi.s type of tooth (of which 

 only the crown or exposed por- 

 tion is represented) dift'ers very 

 widely indeed from the teeth 

 of the Iguanodon and Hop- 

 losaur, of whicli figures were 

 given in the preceding number 

 of KNowLEiMiE. Thus the crown of this tooth is much 

 fiattened from side to side, with sharp cutting fore-and-aft 

 edges, of w-hicli the front one is higlily convex, while the 

 hinder one is either nearly straight or somewhat concave. 

 Moreovi'r, one or both of tlu'scs cutting-edges were serrated 



4. — Edge ami Side 

 Views of the Tooth ok a 

 Meoalosaurian Rei'tile, 

 WITH Part of the Serra- 

 tions ENLARUEI). 



like a saw, thus indicating that these formidable teeth were 

 adapted for tearing and rending flesh. This led Dr. 

 Buckland to conclude that the old Stonesfield reptile, to 

 which these teeth once belonged, must have been of carni- 

 vorous habits ; and since the bones found in the same 

 deposits indicated a creature of comparatively huge dimen- 

 sions, he proposed that it should be known as the Jlegalo- 

 saur, or Great Reptile. Since, however, the thigh-bone of 

 the Megalosaur does not exceed a yard in length, it is 

 obnous that the creature was vastly inferior in point of 

 size to the Hoplosaur and its kindred. 



Similar teeth were subsequently found by Dr. !ManteU 

 in the much higher Wealden beds ; and by discoveries 

 afterwards made both in Europe and the United States, 

 it was eventually found that the Megalosaur was merely 

 one representati^•e of a group of Giant Land Reptiles 

 characterised, among other peculiarities, by the possession 

 of teeth of the type described above, and also by having 

 sharply curved claws adapted to aid these teeth in seizing 

 and destroying lixing prey. While, therefore, the Iguanodons 

 and the HoiJlosaurs of the secondary period may be com- 

 pared to the herbivorous elephants and hippopotami of 

 the present fauna of the globe, the place of the lions and 

 tigers of to-day was occupied in the same early epoch by 

 the Megalosaurs. 



Although these Megalosaurs walked upright, like the 

 Iguanodons, which they also resembled in having hollow 

 limb-bones, there is a very important difference between 

 the.se two groups of reptiles in regard to that part of the 

 skeleton which includes the haunch-bones, and is techni- 

 cally known as the pch-u (from the Latin word for a basin, 

 in allusion to the basin-like shape of the human pelvis). 

 Now since it is to a great extent from the structm-e of the 

 pelvis that the affinity between Giant Reptiles and Bh-ds 

 has been proved to exist, it is worth while to pay some 

 attention to this point ; although the reader must make 

 up his mind not to be frightened by the unavoidable use of 

 a certain number of technical terms for bones which have 

 no vernacular name. If, then, the reader will direct his 

 attention to Fig. 5, which represents one side of the pelvis 



Fig. 5. — Left Side of the Pelvis of the Kiwi. »/, hnum-h-bone 

 or ilium; p.p'. pubis; is, iscbium; <i, cup for head of thigh- 

 bone. (.\fter Marsh.) 



of the remarkable New Zealand wingless bird known as the 

 Kiwi or Apteryx. he will observe that the haunch-bone 

 extends as a deep vertical plate a long distance in advance 

 of the cup for the reception of the head of the thigh-bone. 

 He will also see that the inferior portion of the pelvis is 

 composed of two bars of bone respectively known as the 

 pubis and ischium, lying nearly parallel to one another 

 and directed behind the aforesaid cup for the thigh-bone. 

 The pubis, or more anterior bone, also gives off a small 

 process (/)') projecting towards the head of the animal from 



