366 FOSSIL REPTILES. 



Mr. de Lab^che, which was inserted in the fifth volume, first 

 series, of the Geological Society. 



Still the head was wanting; but having continued his 

 researches with Mr. de Lab^che, and profiting by the acquisi- 

 tions of Colonel Birch, Mr. Conybeare in the following year 

 was enabled to describe a tolerably entire head, though a little 

 crushed, and a large under jaw, which he considered referable 

 to this species. He also added many other bones. (See Geol. 

 Trans, vol. i. second series.) 



Lastly, in 1824, in the month of January, a skeleton, almost 

 entire, was found, by the before-named Miss Anning, at Lyme 

 Regis. This confirmed or rectified the conjectures which Mr. 

 Conybeare had formed on the parts which he had examined. 

 But he also learned from it a particularity altogether new, and of 

 which he had not entertained the slightest suspicion. This was, 

 that the neck of this animal had been of a most disproportionate 

 length, and composed of many more vertebrae than are seen 

 even in the birds, which have the most, and particularly those in 

 the swan, which, in this respect, surpasses every other animal. 



This astonishing specimen was purchased by the Duke of 

 Buckingham, and placed at the disposal of the Geological 

 Society. 



Of all the inhabitants of the ancient world, this animal is, 

 perhaps, the most anomalous, and the most deserving the name 

 of monster, if we could, indeed, dare to characterize any of the 

 specific productions of Nature by such an appellation. The 

 name Plesiosaurus^ given by Mr. Conybeare, means akin or 

 approximating to lizards, because he conceived that it more 

 resembled this genus than the ichthyosaurus. 



After these notices of Mr. Conybeare, the Baron examined 

 anew many vertebrae, and some other bones from Honfleur, 

 to which he had before turned his attention, and which he had 

 proposed to describe as belonging to an unknown saurian reptile. 

 These, he was now convinced, were debris of the plesiosaurus. 

 Hence there is no doubt but that this animal existed also on 



