THE 



GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE, 



NEW SERIES. DECADE II. VOL. III. 



No. v.— MAY, 1876. 



OIE^IO-II^JLXj .^I^TIOXjIES. 



I. — On the Exhumation and Development op a large Eeptile 

 (Omosaubus armatus, Owen), from the Kimmeridge Clay, 

 Swindon, Wilts. ■ 



By "William Davies, of tlie Britisli Museum. 

 (PLATES VII. and VIII.) 



COMPAEATIVELY few of the many persons who visit our larger 

 Museums, and stop to examine the fossils exhibited in the 

 cases, have any idea of the time, labour, care, and mechanical skill 

 which many of them require ere they are ready for the palceonto- 

 logist to interpret and describe, the artist to delineate, or made 

 sufficiently intelligible for public exhibition. The first operation, 

 and one requiring considerable care, is the exhumation of the fossil 

 remains from the stratum of gravel or clay, or from the siliceous or 

 calcareous rocks of various degrees of hardness, in which they may 

 have been imbedded and preserved. Then the hardening of the 

 bones — for these remarks apply more especially to the remains of 

 the larger Yertebrata — which are generally found much broken, 

 and, unless thoroughly mineralized, in a more or less friable and 

 brittle condition. Next there is the fitting and cementing together 

 of the pieces, which are frequently numerous, and of such as have 

 been imbedded in a rocky matrix, the careful development by 

 hammer and chisel from their incasement of stone : all of which 

 operations necessarily involve a large amount of skilled labour. 



The late Prof. Phillips wrote a graphic description of the dis- 

 covery, mode of exhumation and restoration of the remains of the 

 huge Cetiosaurus discovered in 1869, in a quarry in the Great Oolite 

 at Elmslow Bridge,^ and now preserved in the University Museum 

 at Oxford. 



The discovery in 1874 at Swindon, Wilts, in the upper beds of 

 the Kimmeridge Clay, of another huge Dragon, somewhat smaller 

 in dimensions than the Elmslow giant, yet of scientific value and 

 importance equally as great to the Palaeontologist, being the subject 

 of an important monograph by Prof. Owen. E.B.S.,' and also as it 

 has been recently placed for exhibition in the Geological Gallery of 



^ See Athenceum, April 2nd, 1870. 



2 In tlie Palscontograpliical Society's volume for 1875. Monograph, of a Fossil 

 Dinosaur {Omosaurus armatus, Owen), from the Kimmeridge Clay, pp. 45-93, plates 

 xi.-xxii. 



DECADE II.— VOL. III. — NO. V. 13 



