108 REPORT— 1841. 



but nearly resumes its ordinary place. The second and third sacral vertebrae 

 are not so regularly convex below in the transverse direction, but their sides 

 converge so as to give a slight indication of a broad obtuse ridge. The dia- 

 meter of the spinal canal in the first and last sacral vertebras is one inch. 



The five vertebrae are not anchylosed in a straight line, but describe a 

 gentle curve, with the concavity downAvards ; the series of transverse pro- 

 cesses or sacral ribs, forms a curved line in the opposite direction, in conse- 

 quence of their different positions. The summits of the anchylosed spines 

 being truncated, describe a curve almost parallel with that of the under part 

 of the vertebrae. The contour of the hinder part of the body of the present 

 gigantic carnivorous lizard, doubtless raised high above the ground upon the 

 long and strong hind-legs, must have been diffei'ent from that of any existing 

 Saurians. In these the relatively shorter hind-legs, being directed more or 

 less obliquely outwards, do not raise the under surface of the abdomen from 

 the ground ; it is the greater share in the suppoi't of the trunk assigned to 

 the hind-legs in the Megalosaur which made it requisite that, as in land 

 mammals, a greater proportion of the spine should be anchylosed to transfer 

 the superincumbent weight thi'ough the medium of the iliac bones upon the 

 femora. 



The femur, like the teeth and vertebrae, exhibits a mixture of the charac- 

 ters of the Monitor and the Crocodile. It is arched in two directions, being 

 at first concave in front, and then behind. Its articular head is directed for- 

 wards, and has behind it a compressed and rather salient trochanter ; it 

 thickens towards the distal end, and there terminates in two unequal con- 

 dyles. Near its upper third it has an expansion on both the inner and the 

 outer side, like the one which is seen on the internal side of the femur in the 

 Crocodile. The femur of the Monitor is less arched. The medullary canal 

 is wide, which removes the Megalosaur from the Crocodiles, and indicates, 

 as Dr. Buckland has well shown, its aptitude for a more terrestrial life. 



The ribs, which from their colour, texture, and proximity of deposit, belong 

 most probably to the Megalosaurus, present a double articulation with the ver- 

 tebral column ; the head is supported on a long and strong compressed neck, 

 thickest at its under part ; the tuberosity is large. One of the small cervical 

 false ribs is preserved, the free extremity of which gradually tapers to a point. 



The scapula is a thin, slightly-bent plate, of equal breadth, except where it 

 is expanded and thickened towards the humeral end, but thinning off again 

 towards the articular margin. The chief support of the humerus seems to 

 have been afforded by a large and broad coracoid. The antero-posterior 

 diameter of one of these bones, taken across the median, thin, slightly con- 

 vex margin, is two feet three inches. The thickened process for the articu- 

 lation with the scapula has a deep and narrow notch in front, and the deep 

 and wide glenoid cavity for the humerus behind it ; the posterior boundary 

 of this cavity projects outwards in the form of an obtuse process. A short 

 but strong process projects from the anterior part of the coracoid analogous 

 to that which in the Varanian Monitors and most other Lizards abuts against 

 the epicoracoids, and which bespeaks the existence of the epicoracoids in the 

 Megalosaurus. The characteristic coracoid bone illustrates most unequivo- 

 cally the affinities of the Megalosaurus to the Lacertian group of reptiles ; 

 but compared with the coracoid of a Varanian Monitor, four feet nine inches 

 in length, it is sixteen times as large. This magnitude in a reptile, Cuvier 

 justly observes, is quite appalling ; for, other proportions being the same, the 

 Megalosaurus must have exceeded seventy feet in length. 



A long and slender bone, nearly two feet in length, most resembles the 

 clavicle of certain lizards, especially, as Cuvier remarks, those of the great 



