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51 









Ch. XL] 



MANY REPTILES IMPLY WARM CLIMATE. 



2 1 



remarl 



a British liassic fossil. But what is far more 



Imains of a large ichthyosaurus of liassic type were brought 



flu an island in lat. 77° 16' by Sir Edward Belcher. They 



„«» been described and figured by Professor Owen, and as 

 nave "^ „,.-,• 3i „x .u,~ „,,:™,.i 



diameter 



some ui ^ .~~~~ - < 



mU st have been of considerable size * 



Abundance and variety of reptiles implies warm climate.— 

 The reptiles of the Oolite and Lias, and of the still older 

 n^ oa *vp so numerous and diversified in form that the period 



mesozoic 



of reptiles. The number 



marine genera alone exceeds 



fifty while that of the freshwater and terrestrial species, 



in 



cludin 

 tribes which peopled the sea. 



almost as great as the 



Some 



more 



animals of the same 



living, as the Belodon, for example, of the Upper Trias, a 



about the size of the largest living crocodile, but 



saurian 



which belonged to the extinct order of Dinosaurians. 

 Hermann von Meyer ascertained, in 1865, that it possessed 

 breathing apertures or spout-holes like the whale, so that we 

 might imagine it to have been capable of sustaining a cold 

 climate were it not associated with many reptiles of lower 

 grade, as well as with shells, corals, and plants which be- 

 speak a high temperature. On the whole, no less than 



Hermann von Meyer, 



alone. They belong 

 entirely to extinct orders, but all of which, according to 

 Owen,f display affinities more or less decided to living fa- 

 milies of the same class, while in the overlying liassic and 

 oolitic groups we find representatives of the crocodilian and 

 chelonian orders, which still exist together with members of 

 four extinct orders. These exhibit various grades of organi- 



all derived from the Trias of Germany 



sation, and the analogy of the living creation is strongly m 

 favour of their having flourished in a 



climate 



heat was considerable during part of the year and the winter 



brief and never severe. 



temperate 



* 



Last of Arctic Voyages. 



tion of reptiles in Owen's Paleontology, 



t See a table of geological distribu- p. 321, 2nd edit., 1861. 



