316 FOSSIL REPTILES. 



nothing in comparison of a multitude of others presented to 

 our consideration by the numerous monuments of the natural 

 history of the ancient world. We have already seen a tapir of 

 the size of the elephant, and in the megalonyx a sloth as large 

 as the rhinoceros. Why, then, should we be surprised to find 

 in the animal of Maestricht a lizard as large as a crocodile? 

 We shall presently meet with more of equal and even of greater 

 size. 



But the reflection which strikes us here as of the greatest 

 importance is on the admirable constancy of those zoological 

 laws, which are never falsified in any class or in any family. 

 ^* When occupied with the teeth and jaws," says the Baron, 

 " previously to the examination of limbs or vertebrae, a single 

 tooth has been sufficient to put me in possession of all the 

 generic characters. The genus once determined by it, all the 

 rest of the skeleton, in some measure, was arranged of itself, 

 without trouble or hesitation on my part. I cannot too much 

 insist upon these general laws, the basis and principle of the 

 methods which in this science, as in all others, have an interest 

 far superior to that of all particular discoveries, however 

 curious." 



The animal which we have now described has been called by 

 Mr. Conybeare the mosasaurus. 



The remains of another large saurian were discovered by M. 

 de Soemmering in the environs of Manheim, which M. Cuvier 

 considers as a new subgenus, intermediate between the moni- 

 tors and crocodiles, and to which he has given the name of 

 geosaurus. 



The remains of this remarkable animal were discovered in a 

 district called Meulenhardt, at ten feet deep, and a few paces 

 from the remains of the crocodilus priscus, which we formerly 

 noticed. They were enveloped in a marly bed, softer than that 

 in which the crocodile was incrusted. They were not so well 

 preserved as the latter, and it was with difficulty that certain 

 parts could be sufficiently disengaged for the recognition of the 



