MOSASAURUS. 167 



SECTION VII. 



MOSASAURUS, OR GREAT ANIMAL OF MAESTRICHT. 



The Mosasaurus has been long known by the name of 

 the great animal of Maestricht, occurring near that city, in 

 the calcareous freestone which forms the most recent de- 

 posite of the cretaceous formation, and contains Ammonites, 

 Belemnites, Hamites, and many other shells belonging to 

 the chalk, mixed with numerous remains of marine animals 

 that are pecuhar to itself. A nearly perfect head of this 

 animal was discovered in 1780, and is now in the Museum 

 at Paris. This celebrated head during many years baffled 

 all the skill of Naturalists ; some considered it to be that of 

 a Whale, others of a Crocodile ; but its true place in the 

 animal kingdom was first suggested by Adrian Camper, and 

 at length confirmed by Cuvier. By their investigations it is 

 proved to have been a gigantic marine reptile, most nearly 

 allied to the monitor.* The geological epoch at which the 

 Mosasaurus first appeared, seems to have been the last of 

 the long series, during which the oohtic and cretaceous 

 groups were in process of formation; In these periods the ' 

 inhabitants of our planet seem to have been principally 

 marine, and some of the largest creatures were Saurians of 

 gigantic stature, many of them living in the sea, and con- 

 trolhng the excessive increase of the then existing tribes of 

 fishes. 



From the lias upwards, to the commencement of the 



* The Monitors form a genus of Lizards, frequenting marshes and the 

 banlis of rivers in hot climates; they have received this name from the pre- 

 Tailing, but absurd, notion that they give warning by a whistling noisr, of 

 the approach of Crocodiles and Caymans. One species, the Lacerta nilotica, 

 which devours the eggs of Crocodiles, has been sculptured on the monuments 

 of ancient Egypt. 



