48 EXTINCT MONSTERS. 



arranged in as many as seven or eight rows, while those of each 

 finger are exceedingly numerous. Thus the whole structure 

 forms a kind of- bony pavement which must have been very 

 supple. Such a limb would be one of the most efficient and 

 powerful swimming organs known in the whole animal kingdom. 

 In whales the fingers of the flippers are of the usual number, 

 namely, five. Some species of fish-lizards had as many as over 

 a hundred separate little bones in the fore-paHdle. 



Another question naturally suggests itself: Were they viviparous, 

 or did they lay eggs like crocodiles? This question seems to 

 have been answered in favour of the first supposition ; and in the 

 following interesting manner. It not infrequently happens that 

 entire little skeletons of very small individuals are found under 

 the ribs of large ones. They are invariably uninjured, and of 

 the same species as the one that encloses them, and with the 

 head pointing in one direction. Such specimens are most 

 probably the fossilised remains of little fish-lizards, that were yet 

 unborn when their mothers met with an untimely end (see p. 5 1). 

 In some cases, however, they may be young ones that were 

 swallowed. (See Appendix V.) 



The jaws of these hungry formidable monsters were provided 

 with a series of formidable teeth sometimes over two hundred 

 in number inserted in a long groove, and not in distinct sockets, 

 as in the case of crocodiles. In some cases, sixty or more have 

 been found on each side of the upper and lower jaws, giving a 

 total of over two hundred and forty teeth ! The larger teeth may 

 be two inches or more in length. 



The jaws were admirably constructed on a plan that combined 

 lightness, elasticity, and strength. Instead of consisting of one 

 piece only, they show a union of plates of bone, as in recent 

 crocodiles. These plates are strongest and most numerous just 

 where the greatest strength was wanted, and thinner and fewer 

 towards the extremities of the jaw. A crocodile, Sir Samuel 

 Baker says, in his Wild Beasts and their Ways, can bite a man in 



