OF CREATION. 



199 



gigantic size, although the size is, in some respects, 

 the character of least importance. 



The jaw, or rather the fragment of a jaw with 

 teeth (fig. 77), a few vertebrse, and some of the bones 

 of the extremities, form the scanty amount of material 

 for the description of this animal ; but these remains 



Fig. 77 



MEGALOSAURUS. 

 Portion of the Lower Jaw. 



are enough to enable the comparative anatomist to 

 decide with certainty with regard to several most 

 important characters, and they suggest inquiries and 

 probable conditions of the skeleton, of which the cor- 

 rectness may be tested by future discoveries. 



The tribe of lizards, one of the most important 

 of the existing reptilian groups, forms a link in the 

 chain by which the animal now under discussion was 

 connected with known forms ; but, although analogies 

 unquestionably exist between the lizard and the 

 Megalosaurus, and also between this animal and the 

 crocodiles, there yet remain marked and peculiar cha- 

 racters separating it from both. It is now consi- 

 dered as one of an extinct family, supereminently 

 remarkable for the great height at which all the 



