72 EEPOBT— 1880. 



animal are scattered, and appear to have been washed out of the large 

 animal, but are always on the ventral side. The entire animal is a good 

 deal confused, so that the co-ordination and order of the parts can only be 

 made out after careful study. The bones of the young animal, fi'om being 

 less mineralised than those of the large individual, are much softer. The 

 largest ve^rtebra is about 4 m.m. in diameter, so that, reckoning sixty 

 vertebrae, the author estimates the length of the vertebral column of the 

 small animal at 24 cm. The head is not only entire, but shows the 

 suttires between the bones. The sclerotic plates form the usual circles 

 defending the eyes. The jaws show no traces of teeth, and from their 

 excellent preservation Wurstemberger inferred that none existed. It is, 

 however, he says, most remarkable that the snout is not turned towards 

 the hinder part of the large animal but towards its head, and the vertebral 

 columns are parallel to each other. This specimen I have not been able 

 to examine, and no figure of it has been published ; but although appa- 

 rently less well preserved than some others, I believe it to be embryonic, 

 and that the position of the young animal may possibly have been the cause 

 of death in the parent. For, after the author's account of the unusually 

 forward position and contents of the stomach, I do not accept his doubts 

 as to whether the specimen really justifies the embryonic hypothesis, in 

 face of the cumulative evidence that at least six specimens are known 

 which each demonstrates the same fact of the presence of a young Ichthyo- 

 saur, in good preservation, in the posterior abdominal region of the 

 large specimens. 



Finally, just as I was leaving Tiibingen, Herr Kocker, Professor 

 Quenstedt's obliging and excellent assistant, mentioned to me that there 

 is at present at Reutlingen for sale an Ichthyosaurus, which is alleged to 

 contain several young specimens in various stages of development. Being 

 unable to go to see this specimen, I obtained a photograph of it, but 

 unfortunately the animal appears to have lain upon its back and side, in 

 such a position that the ribs of the upper side of the body have fallen 

 together, leaving the abdominal cavity exposed. Beyond all doubt, there 

 are the remains of several small Ichthyosaurs in and about the hinder 

 abdominal region, but their condition is not so clear as in other specimens, 

 and the circumstance derives its chief weight from being a link in a chain 

 of evidence, and its interest from repeating a condition shown by the Lyme 

 Regis specimen referred to. 



Of all this material no illustration has been given excepting the rough 

 and almost worthless figure by Dr. von Jaeger, published between fifty 

 and sixty years ago. I am, therefore, glad to be able, by the kind co-opera- 

 tion of Dr. Oscar Fraas, to submit a photograph (of which Plate I. is a 

 copy) of this the earUest found example illustrating the relation of the 

 young to the parent Ichthyosaur. 



I am also greatly indebted to Prof, von Quenstedt for having allowed 

 me to have photographs made of the two most striking specimens in the 

 University Museum of Tiibingen. Hence these three figures will enable 

 those to whom the originals may be inaccessible to judge of the nature and 

 value of the evidence to which I have already referred. It may, however, 

 be useful if I append a few descriptive notes on the characters of the 

 specimens. The determination of the species I purposely leave for a 

 memoir, in which I trust to give a systematic revision and determination 

 of the British and foreign Ichthyosaurs ; and this subject is so beset with 

 diflBculties, that it may yet be some time before a species of Ichthyosaurus 



