SS VESTIGES OF THE 



upon the entral air tube pervading its shell. Its 

 tentacula, sent abroad over the summit of the shell, 

 searched the sea for prey. The creature had an ink-bag, 

 with which it could muddle the water around it, to 

 protect itself from more powerful animals, and, strange 

 to say, this has been found so well preserved that an 

 artist has used it in one instance as a paint, wherewith 

 to delineate the belemnite itself. 



The Crustacea discovered in this formation are less 

 numerous. There are many fishes, some of which 

 {cicrodus, 2^sammodus, &c.) are presumed, from remains 

 of their palatal bones, to have been of the gigantic 

 cartilaginous class, now represented by such as the 

 cestraceon. It has been considered by Professor Owen 

 as worthy of notice, that the cestraceon being an in- 

 habitant of the Australian seas, we have, in both the 

 botany and ichthyology of this period, an analogy to 

 that continent. The pycnodontes (thick-toothed) and 

 lepidoides (having thick scales) are other families 

 described by M. Agassiz as extensively prevalent. In 

 the shallow waters of the oolitic formation, the ichthyo- 

 saurus, plesiosaurus, and other huge saurian carnivora of 

 the preceding age, plied, in increased numbers, their 

 destructive vocation.* To them were added new genera, 

 the cetiosaurus, mososaurus, and some others, all of 

 similar character and habits. 



Land reptiles abounded, including species of the 

 pterodactyle of the preceding age — tortoises, trionyces, 

 crocodilians — and the pliosaurus, a creature which appears 



* In some instances, these fos.sils arc fonnJ with the contents of the 

 stomach faithfully preserved, and even with pieces of the external 

 skin. The pellets ejected hy them (coproh'tes) are found in vast 

 numbers, each generally enclosed in a nodule of ironstone, and some- 

 times showing remains of the fishes which had formed their food. 



