MONOGRAPH 



ON 



THE FOSSIL KEPTILIA 



OF THE 



LIASSIC FORMATIONS. 



Class— REPTILIA, Cuv. 1 



Order — Ichthyopterygia, Owen? 



Genus — Ichthyosaurus, Kdnig? 



A. Introduction. 



Remains of the extinct marine Reptiles, now known as Ichthyosaurs, have attracted 

 the attention of collectors and describers of organic fossils for nearly two centuries past. 



In Scheuchzer's ' Querelae Piscium,' 1708, tab. hi contains figures of the 

 biconcave vertebrae of an Icldhyosaur from the Lias of Altdorf, supposed to be a 

 fish. Knorr, also, in his ' Naturgeschichte der Versteinerungen,' vol. ii, represents, in 

 figs. 5 — 7 of tab. i, vertebra? of the same Reptile, as " Icfit/iyosjjondylen." 



So, likewise, when the attention of more modern palaeontologists was awakened to 

 remains of the remarkable subjects of the present Monograph, as in the paper by Sir Everard 

 Home, Bart., F.R.S. (' Philos. Trans.,' 1814), we find such described as "Fossil Remains 

 of an animal more nearly allied to Pishes than any of the other classes of animals." 



In this paper, however, as in succeeding ones by the same author, which appeared 

 in the 'Philosophical Transactions' for the years 1816, 1818, 1819, and 1820, 

 the accurate and beautiful engravings of the drawings of the several subjects by 



1 Reptiles, Cuv., 'Tableau Elementaire de l'Histoire Naturelle des Animaux,' 8vo, An. vi (1797), 

 p. 281. 



2 " On the Orders of Fossil and Recent Reptilia," ' Report of the British Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science,' 1859, 8vo, pp. 155, 159. 



3 ' Icones Fossilium Sectiles,' fol., pi. xix, fig. 250. 



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