364 Antediluvian Zoology. 
probably all of fresh-water origin, and are accompanied by 
remains of ‘Trionyx (?), but no marine exuvize have been ob- 
served. Professor Sedgewick conceives this bituminous schist 
to be a perfectly distinct fresh-water formation, situate between 
the new and the old red sandstones, and not at present identi- 
fied with any part of the English series. 
Mr. J. Phillips has figur ed teeth, vertebrae, and other bones 
of fishes from the cault, coral rag, Oxford clay, and lias beds, 
of Yorkshire. The Git slate of the magnesian limestone of 
Durham has produced seven or eight species of Ichthydlites, 
belonging to the order Malaco opter fgii abdominales and the 
genus Pp aleeothri issum. To the Reverend A. Sedgewick we are 
indebted for a fine series of illustrative drawings of these fish. 
Geol. Trans., vol. iil. pl. 8. to 12 
OVIPAROUS QUADRUPEDS (AMPHI'BIA). 
Satria. — An improved acquaintance with comparative 
anatomy has led to the classification of numerous animals of 
this order. Several genera are now known in different form- 
ations. Mr. Coneybeare is of opinion that eleven or twelve 
distinct species of gavials and crocodiles occur in the second- 
ary strata, and in as many different geological sites. They 
commence in the new red sandstone, cand occur in the lias, 
and thence upwards to the London clay. As the recent 
species of crocodiles and gavials are natives of hot climates, 
an impor tant inference has hence been drawn, that these fossil 
species were also inhabitants of hot climates; and it is con- 
firmatory of other circumstances which seem to show that all 
fossils originally existed in a higher temperature than prevails 
at present in the latitudes where we discover them. ‘These 
opinions have given rise to an animated controversy, conducted 
by Dr. Fleming, Mr. Coneybeare, and Dr. Buckland, in the 
Edinburgh eeoiiral Journal. 
The lias beds are rich in saurian remains, and the frag- 
ments that are found in the Stonesfield slate, the ferruginous 
sandstone of Tilgate Forest, of Hastings, and the Isle of Wight, 
indicate the prodigious magnitude of the reptiles to which they 
belonged. 
It does not appear that the fossil skeletons of any saurian 
animals assimilate precisely to living species. By far the 
greater number are of extraordinary conformation. 
Thus, the Plesiosatirus (fg. 92.) approaches to the genus 
Crocodile, but possesses double the number of vertebrae; a 
neck resembling the body of a serpent; the head of a lizard ; 
nstead of feet, it has swimmers like a whale, or paddles like 
