354 THE WONDERS OF GEOLOGY. Lect. IV. 



Teeth of crocodiles are mentioned by Baron Cuvier as 

 having been obtained from the chalk at Meudon. 



A considerable portion of a spinal column composed of 

 concavo-convex vertebrae, with many ribs, and part of the | 

 pelvis, of a small lizard, were found in the chalk near Maid- I 

 stone ; and another specimen of the anterior portion of the 

 spine, with part of the cranium, has since been obtained by I 

 Mrs. Smith, of Tunbridge Wells. A jaw, with numerous 

 subulate teeth, anchylosed by their base to an alveolar 

 parapet of bone, as in the recent Iguana, has been dis- 

 covered in chalk near Cambridge. These relics are re- 

 ferred by Prof. Owen to the same species of reptile, which 

 he has named Raphiosauvus* 



Remains of two genera of marine reptiles, the Ich- 

 thyosaurus and Plesiosaurus, occur, though rarely, in the 

 white chalk of Sussex, Kent, and Dorsetshire.f 



From the greensand of Kent one of the most interesting I 

 specimens of the Iguanodon has been obtained ; and in the 

 same strata at Hythe, have been found numerous bones of a 

 gigantic marine reptile, to which are also ascribed certain 

 large conical striated teeth, that occur in the greensand of 

 various localities, f 



That the Pterodactyles, those marvellous flying reptiles, 

 existed during the cretaceous epoch, w r e have proof in 

 several specimens of bones of the extremities, and of part of 

 the cranium, and jaws with teeth, obtained from the chalk 

 pit at Burham, in which the fossil turtle, presently to 

 be noticed, was discovered. § 



* Geol. Trans, vol. vi. PL 39 ; Medals of Creation, vol. ii. p 758. 



t I have received a vertebrae of a Plesiosaurus from the chalk near 

 Blandford, through the kindness of J. Shipp, Esq. 



t Hence the name Polyptychodon has been given to this reptile. 

 Medals of Creation, vol. ii. p. 728. 



§ Figures and descriptions of this chalk Pterodactyle are given by 

 Mr. Bowerbank in the Geological Journal for 1846. 



