COPROLITES., 149 



similarly disposed in strata of many miles in extent, and 

 mixed so abundantly with teeth and rolled fragments of the 

 bones of reptiles and fishes, as to show that this region, 

 having been the bottom of an ancient sea, was for a long 

 period the receptacle of the bones and foscal remains of its 

 Inhabitants. The occurrence of Coprolites is not, however, 

 pecuUar to the places just mentioned; they are found in 

 greater or less abundance throughout the lias of England ; 

 they occur also in strata, of all ages that contain the re- 

 mains of carnivorous reptiles, and have been recognised in 

 many and distant regions both of Europe and America.* 



The certainty of the origin of these Coprolites is establish- 

 ed by their frequent presence in the abdominal region of 

 fossil skeletons of Ichthyosauri found in the lias of Lyme 

 Regis. One of the most remarkable of these is represented 

 in PI. 13; the coprolitic matter loaded with fish-scales, 

 within the ribs of these and similar specimens, is identical 

 in appearance and chemical composition with the insulated 

 coprolites that occur in the same strata with the skeletons.f 



* Professor Jager has recently discovered many Coprolites in the alum 

 slate of Gaildorf in VVirtemberg ; a formation wiiicli he considers to be in 

 the lower region of that part of the new red sandstone formation which in 

 Germany is called Keupcr ; and which contains the remains of two species 

 of Sauriany. 



In the United States Dr. Dekay has also discovered Coprolites in the 

 Green-sand formation of Monmouth, in New Jersey, see PI. 15, fig. 13. 



■}• This specimen has been presented by Viscount Cole to the Geological 

 Collection of the University of Oxford. It aftbrds decisive proof that the 

 substances in question cannot be referred to adventitious matter, placed 

 accidentally in contact with the fossil body, inasmuch as the large coprolitic 

 mass is enclosed between the back bone and the right and left series of 

 ribs, of which the greater number remain nearly in their natural position. 

 The quantity of this coprolite is prodigious, when compared with the size 

 of the animal in which it occurs ; and if we were not acquainted with the 

 powers of the digestive organs of reptiles and fishes, and their capacity of 

 gorging the larger animals that form their prey ; the great space within these 

 fossil skeletons of Ichthyosauri, which is occasionally filled with coprolitic 

 matter, would appear inexplicable. 



13* 



