EXTINCT SAVE I A. 341 



All the extremities were encased in flesh and skin, like the flippers of Whales. These fast-swimming 

 surface skimmers began in the Trias, and the early kinds, such as Notosaurus, differed somewhat 

 from those which followed, or the genera Plesiosaurns and Pliosaurus. The first has been described, and 

 the kinds of the other differ, by having the vertebrae wide in proportion to their length, and deeply 

 excavated before and behind. The head is bigger, the neck shorter, and the paddles are larger. 



The American forms belong to the last-named genus ; and the first was represented in the 

 Southern hemisphere in Secondary strata in New Zealand. 



THE EXTIXCT SAURIA, OK LACERTILIA. 



It was noticed, in describing the remarkable Lizard from New Zealand the Tuatera, or Sphenodon 

 that it was allied to Rhynchosaurus and Hyperodapedon, Triassic forms. 



Other extinct Lizards of small size, whose anatomical characters resemble in many important 

 points those of the Lacertilia with amphicoelous vertebrae, like the Gecko, have been found in the 

 strata of the early Secondary ages. Telerpeton, from Elgin in the Trias, is one of these, and the 

 group are called the Homaeosauria. The Eocene Lake basins of Western North America contain 

 numerous fossil remains of Lizards. Some have a bony coat of mail, others are scaly, and a few 

 somewhat resemble the Iguana. Others were found in the Miocene and Pliocene deposits. 



The Protorosauria are the oldest of the Lizards, and the remains of one, six or seven feet in 

 length, with a long neck and moderate-sized skull, a long and slender tail, and its limbs as well 

 developed as they are in existing Monitors, were found in the Permian deposits of Thuringia. It had 

 very few cervical vertebrae, all of which are slightly amphiccelous. The teeth, sharp pointed, were 

 implanted in sockets, and its extremities had five digits, which were arranged like those of the 

 Geckos. Another, called Bathygnathus (deep jaw), is from the Trias of Prince Edward's Island. 



Owen described a fossil Lizard from the Cretaceous with a long neck and body like an eel, 

 and with limbs. It is called Dolichosaurus longicollis. 



He has also described, from South Africa and Hindostan, a form with two huge upper teeth like 

 tusky canines not unlike those of the Morse (Vol. II. p. 212). The lower jaw was armed with a 

 cutting horn, and the reptile swam well. This Dicynodon is of the age of the Permo-Trias, and it 

 belongs to a family the Dicynodontia. Closely allied are the Cryptodontia, whose teeth are either 

 inconspicuous or absent, such as the genus Oudenodon of South Africa. The Cynodontia, a South 

 African family, is of late Palaeozoic and early Secondary age, and there is a pair of teeth in each jaw 

 like the canines of carnivorous animals, and they divide incisors from mclars. Galaeosaurus is the most 

 remarkable. 



Owen has also described a huge Lizard from the latest Australian deposits. Its skull has horns, 

 and belonged to a form which was somewhat like Moloch horridus, and was as large as an ox. 



The Mosasauria were Lizards ; they were great, long-bodied, and some, very Snake-like marine 

 creatures. They are found in the Cretaceous deposits of Europe, and Maestricht yielded the first. 

 It had eighty-seven proccelous vertebrae, and the skull was not unlike that of an Old World Monitor ; 

 but the sharp recurved teeth were anchylosed to the pre-maxillary, maxillary, pterygoid, and 

 dentary bones, and the pterygoid bones are unlike those of any recent kinds. There were North 

 American kinds of this group of vast size, which had four paddles, a vast number of vertebrae and 

 ribs, and teeth big enough to vanquish all enemies. They abounded in the Cretaceous seas of the 

 Far West, and some reached the length of sixty feet. 



P. MARTIN DUNCAX. 



NOTE. The tooth and part of the skull of a Dicynodon have been found in Triassic strata near Elgin. The Beaked 

 Lizards of the Acrodont group have been found fossil in the Trias at Elgin and elsewhere (pee p. 290). 



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