Prof. BucKLAND on CoproUtes. 233 



origin*: this conjecture was soon verified by examination of the specimens 

 in question : hke the Coprohtes at Lyme, I found them to be composed of 

 a flat plate of dig-ested bone reduced to a plastic state resembUng putty, and 

 coiled up spirally like a tape-worm twisted round itself. 



This plate is much thinner, and its coils are more numerous than in the 

 Sauro-coprolites from the lias : imbedded in the substance of this plate, I 

 found many scales of fishes f, and around its exterior, corrugations or impres- 

 sions derived from the membrane of the intestine wherein it was formed^. 



The analysis of Dr. Prout consummates the evidence of their faecal origin, 

 showing them to be composed chiefly of phosphate of lime : they vary from 

 one to two inches in length, and from half an inch to an inch in diameter. 

 On comparing the analysis of a fossil vertebra of fish from the chalk near 

 Lewes with that of an lulus. Dr. Prout found the difference to be scarcely 

 perceptible; its colour and appearance before analysis was also similar§. 



Until we can ascertain the animal from which they have been derived, I 

 propose to designate these bodies by the name of lulo-eido-coprolites. It is 

 obvious, from their form and structure, they cannot be referred to the same 

 animals as the Coprolites at Lyme ; indeed the bones of Saurians of any kind 

 are rarely found along with them ; probably they may have been produced by 

 some of the sharks, rays, diodons, balistes, or other fishes whose teeth, and 

 palates, and spines, are so common in the chalk formation ; the tortuous 

 structure of the intestine of the existing shark, making thirty-four turns in a 



* Plate XXXI. fig. I- 11. t Plate XXXI. fig. 6. 



\ Plate XXXI. figs. 1. 4. 5. 6. 9. 11. compare them with the recent specimens (figs. 20. &21.) 

 of the same plate. 



§ The following accurate description by Mr. Mantell (Geol. of Sussex, p. 104.) shows hovr 

 nearly he approached the discovery of the origin I am now assigning to these luli; although he 

 modestly states that, after examining more than fifty specimens, he can add but little to what is 

 known concerning them. 



"The remains in question are of a reddish brown colour, from 0.5 inch to two inches long, of 

 a cylindrical form, and generally tapering towards the apex, which is obtuse. They are more or 

 less compressed, and have a scaly, corrugated surface. Their constituent substance is precisely 

 of the same nature as that of the vertebrae and other bones found in the chalk formation ; some 

 examples have scales of fishes attached to them. In structure, they differ most essentially from 

 any strobilus or cone ; for, instead of an imbricated surface formed by scales containing seed, 

 and proceeding from one common axis, as in the luli of the Larch, their scaly appearance is pro- 

 duced by the undulating margin of the substance of which they are composed, the latter being 

 irregularly coiled in a spiral manner round an oval cavity or receptacle." 



Mr. Konig also had long suspected their animal nature from the oflensive odour they emit on 

 being submitted to muriatic acid. — See Mantell's Geology of Sussex, pp. 103. 104. 158. and 

 tab. ix. 



VOL. III. — SECOND SERIES. 2 H 



