S64 Antediluvia7i Zoology^ 



probably all of fresh-water origin, and are accompanied by 

 remains of Trionyx (?), but no marine exuviae 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 figured teeth, vertebrae, and other bones 

 of fishes from the gault, coral rag, Oxford clay, and lias beds, 

 of Yorkshire. The marl slate of the magnesian limestone of 

 Durham has produced seven or eight species of Ichthyolites, 

 belonging to the order Malacopterygii abdominales and the 

 genus Palaeothrissum. To the Reverend A. Sedgewick we are 

 indebted for a fine series of illustrative drawings of these fish. 

 GeoL Trans.^ vol. iii. pi. 8. to 1 2. 



OVIPAROUS QUADRUPEDS (AMPHi'bIA). 



Bauria, — 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, and 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 important 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 Philosophical 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 Plesiosaurus (Jig. 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 



