H. GOVIER SEELEY ON MAT7ISATTRTJS GARDNERI. 541 



29. On Mauisaurtts Gardneri (Seeley), an Elasmosaitrian from the 

 Base of the Gault at Folkestone. By Harry Govier Seeley, 

 Esq., F.L.S., F.G.S., &c, Professor of Geography in King's Col- 

 lege, London. (Read February 7, 1877.) 



[Plate XXIIL] 



The Gault hitherto has yielded but scanty remains of animals re- 

 ferable to the Keptilia and to the Palaeosauria ; so that more than 

 ordinary interest attaches to the discovery, in a comparatively per- 

 fect condition, of remains belonging to a genus found hitherto only 

 in New Zealand, which may be regarded as distinctive of the de- 

 posit. The remains of this Plesiosaurian were first found, rolled 

 and abraded, at the foot of the cliffs; much of the caudal region of the 

 animal may therefore have disappeared by attrition, and by the 

 gradual decay of the bones as exposed in the clay, which has partly 

 invested them with selenite. These bones were sent by Mr. 

 Griffith, the well-known Folkestone fossil- collector, to J. S. Gardner, 

 Esq., F.G.S., who traced them to their place in the Cliff, about 

 15 or 16 feet from the base of the Gault, and undertook excavations 

 which have resulted in the discovery of a tooth, of the vertebrae of 

 the neck and back, the principal bones of the limbs, and portions 

 of the pectoral arch. The head, the tail, the pelvic bones, and 

 the smaller bones of the limbs, together with most of the ribs, have 

 not been found ; and it is possible that some of these parts of the 

 skeleton may have become severed before the specimen was covered 

 up in the deposit, Mr. Gardner having used all possible efforts to dis- 

 cover the missing remains. Tho neural arches appear to have been 

 united to the centrums ; and several vertebras were extracted by 

 Mr. Gardner with the neural arches entire ; but, from the brittle 

 condition of the fossils, it was not found easy to preserve the specimens 

 in an unbroken condition. 



There is necessarily some uncertainty about the exact generic 

 determination of this Plesiosaurian ; for the bones which might 

 have cleared away all doubt are not well preserved. It is probable 

 that it may be referable to Mauisaurus, which was about as large; 

 and I have referred it to that genus, partly because it is a Cretaceous 

 fossil, and partly because in vertebral characters and form of limb- 

 bones it approximates closely to that genus ; while what remains of 

 the pectoral arch does not sanction its location in Elasmosaurus. 



Elasmosaurus platyurus is regarded by Professor Cope as having 

 been 45 feet long, one half of which length was formed by the neck, 

 in which 69 vertebrae are preserved, and from which 3 more are 

 supposed to be lost. The dorsal region is supposed to have con- 

 tained 24 vertebrae, of which 14 are preserved, while in the tail 

 there are supposed to have been 51 vertebrae, of which 21 are pre- 

 served, giving a total of 147 vertebra?. Mr. Gardner's fossil gives 



