ge PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. (Nov. 10, 
saw filled with the reliquiz of the great land Saurian contained no 
other than his personal remains. 
«¢When the Stonesfield fossils came before me for lectures to a prac- 
tical class, it was often my desire to present a sketch of the skeleton 
for comparison with that of a crocodile, and a pleasure to me to 
employ in this way such knowledge of the osteology of reptiles as a 
few dissections, now thirty or forty years ago, of each great reptilian 
group had fixed in my mind. For making these drawings on a large 
scale I was obliged to examine and consider several times the great 
bone called by Cuvier ‘ coracoid,’ and to complete it by adding, after 
the pattern of Varanus, the extensions toward the sternum. When 
this was done, the magnitude of the thoracic region became such as 
to terrify me, and I looked eagerly through the collection for any- 
thing to relieve my alarm. Not being able to find any trace of 
sternal or episternal bones, I examined the curiously bent bone 
commonly referred to clavicle, and perceived that zt was of the same 
order of magnitude. Next aset of spatulate bones, in fragments, 
came under my notice, and I speedily decided, ex necessitate, these 
to be scapule*. When completely restored they presented long 
flattened bones, concave on one broad face, convex on the other. I 
know no scapule like them except those of birds ; and among birds 
none appeared to fit so well in the comparison as Apteryw. Then 
T reflected—a scapula like this, how could it belong to a coracoid 
like that? Examining for this purpose the humeral extremity of 
the bone, and collecting all the examples, I found it was composed 
of two elements ossified together, these elements concurring on one 
edge to form an articular cavity. Of these elements the broader 
and shorter one, which extended toward the sternum, was cora- 
coidian in form, and perforated in each of four specimens. If, as 
appeared now to be the case, this was the coracoid, surely the great 
heavy bone so long called by that name was a pelvic bone, and the 
restoration of the skeleton must proceed on an entirely new basis. 
“It soon became evident that the bone so long regarded as a 
clavicle must be removed from the place it had occupied, with the 
so-called coracoid, to which it was proportioned. It could not he 
attached to the now ascertained scapulo-coracoidian arch. It 
seemed calumnious to assign such a bandy-legged bone to either the 
radial or tibial alliance—besides that there could be presented a 
better claimant for the honours of the fibula, if not of radius or 
ulna. What could this bone be? In this state of uncertainty you 
found me, and helped me to a clearer view of the whole case now 
opening. I showed you the long bones which seemed to me to have 
the best claim to be regarded as of the fore limb, remarking that 
every thing seemed to indicate the fore limb of Megalosaurus to have 
been comparatively light and applicable,—not merely a strong sup- 
port to a heavy body, as was thought to be the case when the huge 
* In his “ Notice of Megalosaurus” (Brit. Assoc. Reports, 1841, p. 108) 
Professor Owen says, ‘“‘The scapula is a thin, slightly bent plate, of equal 
breadth, except where it is expanded and thickened towards the humeral end, 
but thinning off again towards the articular margin.” 
