552 



THE WONDERS OF GEOLOGY. Lect. V. 



five lines broad at the base, have been found in the Grinsill 

 sandstone. They closely agree with the teeth of the theco- 

 dont reptiles of the Permian ; but Professor Owen regards 

 them as generically distinct, and has named the reptile to 

 which they belonged the Cladyodon* 



12. Ehyncosaurus.- — The New Red sandstone quarries 

 at Grinsill, in Warwickshire, have also yielded the remains 

 of a very anomalous modification of reptilian organization, 

 combining the lacertian type of skull with edentulous jaws. 

 The general aspect of the cranium resembles that of a bird or 

 turtle; the intermaxillary bones being very long, and curving 

 downward, thus imparting to the fore-part of the head the 

 profile of a parrot. There are no teeth apparent in either 

 jaw, and Professor Owen supposes that this reptile may 

 have had its jaws encased by a bony or horny sheath, as in 

 turtles. Footmarks of a small reptile, with the print of a 

 hind-toe pointing backwards, occur on the surface of some 

 of the slabs of sandstone in these quarries, and are, with 

 much probability, conjectured to have been impressed by 

 the Rhyncosaurus.f 



13. Dicynodon. — Although the geological position of 

 the strata whence the specimens were obtained is somewhat 

 uncertain, yet the relation between the reptiles whose 

 remains I am about to describe and that last mentioned, 

 induces me to notice them in this place. The fossils in 

 question were collected by Mr. Bain,J in a compact sand- 

 stone, supposed to belong to the Triassic system, near 

 Fort Beaufort in South Africa, and were sent, with many 

 other blocks of stone containing bones, to the Geological 



* Report on British Fossils, Rep. for 1841, p. 155. 



f Cambridge Philosophical Transactions, vol. vii. 



t See a notice " On the Discovery of the Fossil Remains of Bidental 

 and other Reptiles in South Africa," by A. G. Bain, Esq. — Geol. Trans. 

 vol. vii., new series. 



