90 EXTINCT MONSTERS. 



Mrs. Mantell, in 1822, in the coarse conglomerate of certain 

 strata in Tilgate Forest, belonging to the Cretaceous period (see 

 Table of Strata, Appendix I.). Dr. and Mrs. Mantell subsequently 

 collected a most interesting series of these remarkable teeth 

 (which, for a time, puzzled the most learned men of the day), from 

 the perfect tooth of a young animal, to the last stage, that of a 

 mere long stump worn away by mastication. In external form 

 they bore a striking resemblance to the grinders of herbivorous 

 mammals, and were wholly unlike any that had previously been 

 known. Even the quarrymen, accustomed to collect the remains 

 of fishes, shells, and other objects embedded in the rocks, had 

 not observed fossils of this kind ; and until Dr. Mantell showed 

 them his specimens, were not aware of the presence of such teeth 

 in the stone they were constantly breaking up for the roads. The 

 first specimen that arrested his attention was a large tooth, which, 

 from the worn surface of its crown, had evidently once belonged 

 to some herbivorous animal. In form it so entirely resembled 

 the corresponding part of an incisor tooth of a large pachy- 

 dermatous animal ground down by use, that Dr. Mantell was 

 much embarrassed to account for its presence in the ancient 

 Wealden strata, in which, according to all previous experience, 

 no fossil remains of mammals would be likely to occur. No 

 reptiles of the present day are capable of masticating their food ; 

 how, then, could he venture to assign it to a reptile ? Here was 

 a puzzle to be solved, and in his perplexity he determined to try 

 whether the great naturalist at Paris would be able to throw any 

 light on the question. Through Sir Charles (then Mr.) Lyell, 

 this perplexing tooth was submitted to Baron Cuvier ; and great 

 was the doctor's astonishment on hearing that it had been without 

 hesitation pronounced to be the upper incisor of a rhinoceros ! 

 The same tooth, with some other specimens, had already been 

 exhibited at a meeting of the Geological Society, and shown to 

 Dr. Buckland, Mr. Conybeare, and others, but with no more 

 satisfactory result. Worse than that : Dr. Mantell was told that 



