196 THE BATH OOLITE PERIOD. CHAP. 



MEGALOSAUKUS BUCKLANDL 



The remains of this great carnivorous lizard have been found 

 in England at Lyme-Regis and Watchet (lias) ; near Bridport 

 (Inferior oolite) ; at Stonesfield (lower part of Great oolite) ; at 

 Enslow Bridge (upper part of Great oolite and Forest marble beds) ; 

 at Weymouth (in Oxford clay); at Cowley and Dry-Sandford 

 (coral-rag) ; at Malton in Yorkshire (coralline oolite) ; and in Sussex 

 (Wealden). It occurs in Kimmeridge clay at Honfleur in Nor- 

 mandy, and in oolite at Besan9on. 



The discovery of the nature of these reliquia} is due to Dr. 

 Buckland's zealous researches among the spolia of the Stonesfield 

 quarries ; though it seems probable that some of the specimens 

 in the Oxford Museum were collected before his day. The materials 

 which are preserved at Oxford for a monograph of the animal have 

 been much augmented of late years ; and though some of the early 

 determinations, or rather suggestions, of the places in the skeleton 

 of particular bones by Cuvier and Owen have been found to require 

 correction, the main conclusions of the great geologist whose name 

 is associated with megalosaurus remain untouched one proof 

 among many of the uncommon sagacity of his busy intellect. 



Megalosaurus, though not the largest of primaeval lizards, has 

 no rival among carnivorous reptiles : perhaps thirty feet long, 

 capable of free movement on land, with strong but not very massive 

 hind limbs, and reduced fore limbs; a short head, with elevated 

 maxillary bones bearing a few long, smooth, laterally-compressed 

 teeth with regularly-crenulated edges ; limb bones which seem to 

 have been hollow within ; hind feet of crocodilian type, with strong 

 compressed claw-bones ; no dermal scuta. 



These characters, considered in detail by help of the University 

 collection and other specimens belonging to Mr. James Parker, 

 in Oxford, to the Duke of Marlborough at Blenheim, and the 

 British Museum, have raised gradually the idea of a peculiar 

 animal essentially reptilian; yet not a ground-crawler, like the 

 alligator, but moving with free steps chiefly, if not solely, on the 

 hind limbs, and claiming a curious analogy, if not some degree 

 of affinity, with the ostrich. 



This idea, which is likely to exercise a strong influence on the 



