
THE FOSSIL REPTILES OF NEW JERSEY. 81 
Iguana, but not so flat as in the former; perhaps it were 
more as in the Crocodile as to compression, while relatively 
still longer. But both of these types present one strange 
feature. The processes which connect the arches of the ver- 
tebre, are related to each other in directions the reverse of 
that which prevails among vertebrata generally, being per- 
haps the same as the zygosphen of the serpent and Clidastes, 
without the usual aecompaniment. But the more probable 
explanation is, that they are the usual "zygapophyses" with 
the articular faces somewhat altered in direction. They are 
very oblique, turned a little over from the perpendicular, 
which latter position is sometimes more or less approached 
by these processes in other animals. 
The Elasmosaurus orientalis rests on the evidence of but 
few remains, but these are like those of its better known 
congener F. platyurus. The vertebre are nearly as large as 
those of an elephant, and indicate a totally different type of 
reptile from the Mosasaurus. The bulk was whale-like, the 
neck long and flexible, while short paddles and the serpent- 
like tail, sped this most colossal of our sea-saurians on his 
destructive career. The skull was light, and with a long nar- 
row, and very flat muzzle; the nostrils or spout-holes were 
near the orbits; the teeth long and cylindric, and much 
sharper than those of the Mosasaurus. The most ravenous 
fish—the Enchodi, or great barracudas of the Cretaceous, 
were his food, and few we might suppose could escape the 
plunge from the elevated position whence he scanned the 
waters for prey. Cimoliasaurus magnus is more abundant 
in New Jersey. In bulk it was little inferior to the last, 
but it was apparently abbreviated and depressed behind, and 
so must have presented a very peculiar form. Precisely what 
that was and whether. it supported a caudal fluke, we must 
determine hereafter. Elasmosaurus platyurus was forty-five 
feet in length. 
While the crocodiles are most numerous in individuals in 
the deposits of this period, the turtles exceed them and all 
