394 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 



forced into the matrix which supports the iscbia. Many of the dorsal 

 and caudal vertebrae were sent, and remain in continuous masses, so that 

 the succession is readily traced, and the true relations of the extremi- 

 ties preserved. 



In removing the matrix from beneath the vertebras, scales and teeth 

 of some six species of Physoclyst and Physostomous fishes were found, 

 including an Enchodus and a Sphyraena, the latter indicating a new 

 species which I have called S. carinata. These animals had doubtless 

 been the food of the Elasmosaurus. 



The end of the muzzle was broken from a part or the whole of the 

 cranium, which has not been rediscovered, though Dr. Turner has made 

 careful search. It was found in front of the vertebras here regarded as 

 cervical, at some distance from them. 



The whole skeleton has been under considerable pressure, so that 

 most of the ribs have been pressed flat on the vertebras ; the long para- 

 pophyses of the cervicals have most of them been fractured at their 

 bases and compressed, those of opposite sides thus approaching more 

 nearly in the form of chevron bones than they otherwise would have 

 done. The proximal cervicals are obliquely flattened by the pressure ; 

 the other cervicals have the bodies naturally flat, with the articular 

 surfaces much less so than the median portion. Some of the caudals 

 are obliquely distorted. 



Description — Vertebrw. — The neck may be safely assumed as a point 

 of departure, as it consists of above sixty mostly continuous vertebras, 

 which graduate to an atlas of very slender proportions. Most of them 

 preserve more or less developed parapophyses. At the posterior ex- 

 tremity of this series, sixteen are perfectly continuous, and in this por- 

 tion a great gradation in form is apparent. The anterior are narrow, 

 compressed, and similar to the more distal cervicals in the elevated po- 

 sition of the lateral angle ; the anterior are subquadrate, thick, and with 

 lower lateral rib, and stronger (?) pleurapophysis. In these respects the 

 latter resemble the dorsals which follow, toward what I believe to be 

 the tail. Four anterior dorsals are in one mass (figured in Plate 3 ;) in 

 this series the lateral angle first approaching is finally lost in the mar- 

 gin of the rib-pit, the posterior thus resembling other dorsals. There 

 can be, so far, little doubt that the anterior and posterior extremities of 

 the masses are correctly interpreted. 



In a series of four anterior dorsals, which, like the preceding, are in 

 their original continuous mass, those of one extremity have centra 

 rounded in section, with interior rib-pits ; those of the other have quad- 

 rate centra and elevated diapophyses ; the former have the character of 

 the first dorsals, the latter of the median dorsals. The posterior dorsals 

 and anterior caudals form in like manner a continuous series of eleven 

 vertebras, fractured in four places. In (hem the diapophyses steadily 

 descend, reaching the inferior plane in the last, thus with the reduction 

 of the venus foramina to ODe, at the seventh, indicating the point of tran- 

 sition from dorsal to caudal series. The zygapophy ses preserve the usual 

 arrangement, but are much compressed, so that the posterior or down- 

 looking are confluent, and scarcely separated by an emargination. 



The neural spines at their bases have a slight posterior obliquity, and 

 the superior portion leans strongly in the anterior direction. The inferior 

 limbs of the cervical pleurapophyses appear to be entirely wanting. The 

 articular faces for the chevron bones are seen at the extremity of the 

 inferior rib of the caudal. 



Of the cervicals there are both axis and atlas. Of the caudals, 

 probably the distal half at least is lost. A single vertebra near the 



