Antediluvian Zoology. 367 



in the size of the fossil animal, which is of gigantic propor-. 

 tions. It is concluded that, if an amphibious, it was not a 

 marine reptile, but the inhabitant of rivers and fresh-water 

 lakes. The same animal may be traced, in its enormous frag- 

 ments, on the eastern and western sides of the Isle of Wight, 

 and in the Isle of Purbeck, mingled with the remains of two 

 species of crocodile and the Megalosaurus. We have figured 

 several illustrations of the teeth of Iguanodon in p. 14. fig. 14. 



In Yorkshire, the teeth and vertebrae of saurian animals were 

 noticed by Mr. J. Phillips in the gault or Speeton clay, Oxford 

 clay, Bath oolite, and abundantly in the lias shale. 



Vertebrae and teeth of Ichthyosaurus, Plesiosaurus, and 

 Crocodile, occur in the old diluvium of Norfolk. 



Pterodactyl us, or winged lizard, one of the most extraordi- 

 nary productions of the fossil world, is an animal which forms 

 the intermediate link, hitherto deemed to exist only in fable, 

 between birds and reptiles. 



This creature, previously known in two formations upon 

 the Continent, has been recently recognised in the lias of 

 Dorsetshire. 



We cannot resist the temptation to introduce this remark- 

 able animal in the language of Professor Buckland : — 



" In size and general form, and in the disposition and 

 character of its wings, this fossil genus, according to Cuvier, 

 somewhat resembled our modern bats and vampyres, but had 

 its beak elongated, like the bill of a woodcock, and armed with 

 teeth, like the snout of a crocodile ; its vertebrae, ribs, pelvis, 

 legs, and feet, resembled those of a lizard ; its three anterior 

 fingers terminated in long hooked claws, like that on the fore- 

 finger of the bat ; and over its body was a covering, neither 

 composed of feathers, as in the bird, nor of hair, as in the bat, 

 but of scaly armour, like that of an iguana : in short, a mon- 

 ster, resembling nothing that has ever been seen or heard of 

 upon earth, excepting the dragons of romance and heraldry. 

 Moreover, it was probably noctivagous and insectivorous, and 

 in both these points resembled the Jbat ; but differed from it, in 

 having the most important bones in its body constructed after 

 the manner of those of reptiles. With flocks of such like 

 creatures flying in the air, and shoals of no less monstrous 

 Ichthyosauri and Plesiosauri swarming in the ocean, and 

 gigantic crocodiles and tortoises crawling on the shores of the 

 primeval lakes and rivers, — air, sea, and land must have 

 been strangely tenanted in those early periods of our infant 

 world." 



Testiidines. — Traces of tortoises (Trionyx) are first ob- 

 served in the bituminous schist of the north of Scotland, the 



n ]3 4 



