THEORY OF THE EARTH. 263 



which presents a character quite peculiar, in as 

 much as its teeth appear worn, like those of our 

 herbivorous mammifera. 



To Mr Mantell of Lewes, in Sussex, we are 

 indebted for the discovery of this latter animal, 

 as well as of other large reptiles belonging to 

 the sands lying beneath the chalk. He has 

 named it Iquanodon. 



In the chalk itself there are only reptiles to be 

 seen : there are found in it remains of tortoises 

 and crocodiles. The famous tufaceous quarries 

 of the mountain of St Peter, near Maestricht, 

 which belong to the chalk formation, along with 

 very large sea tortoises, and a multitude of ma- 

 rine shells and zoophytes, have afforded a ge- 

 nus of lizards not less gigantic than the mega- 

 losaurus, which has become celebrated by the re- 

 searches of Camper, and the figures which Fau- 

 jas has given of its bones, in his history of that 

 mountain. 



It was upwards of five and twenty feet long ; 

 its large jaws were armed with very strong coni- 

 cal teeth, a little arcuate, and marked with a 

 ridge, and it had also some of these teeth in the 

 palate. Upwards of a hundred and thirty verte- 

 bras were counted in its spine ; they were convex 



* Researches, vol. v. part ii. p. 161, 232, and 350. 



