GEOLOGY. 



57 



armour-plated tail of the great extinct non-banded Armadillo (Glypto- 

 don) from South America, that had the tail arrived before the head 

 and vertebrae had been received, it might well have been cited to prove 

 the former existence of the Glyptodon in Australia. Other fossil 

 remains of Lacertilia occupy Table-cases 2 and 3. 



Ophidia (Serpents). — These are rarely met with in a fossil state, but 

 a few such remains have been obtained from the Tertiary rocks : one 

 of these, the Palceophis toliapicus, has been obtained from the London 

 Clay of Sheppey; others are recorded from the Miocene of (Eningerf 

 and the Lignites of Bonn-on-the- Rhine. (See Table-case 6.) 



The Crocodilia (which are placed in Wall-case 2, and in Table- 

 cases 3-6) had the body covered with a thick layer of oblong bony 

 plates or scutes, pitted on the surface, and covered with a horny 

 substance. They have a single row of teeth in distinct sockets, 

 which are continually being renewed from below ; the joints of the 

 backbone in these reptiles are either cup-shaped or concave at both 

 ends, as in Teleosaurns ; or concave in front and convex behind, as in 

 the Crocodile from Sheppey, and in all living Crocodiles. Professor 

 Owen has constituted two groups, based on these modifications of the 

 backbone. Of the earliest of these Crocodilian reptiles one is named 

 Belodon, having long and pointed slightly-curved teeth, longitudinally 

 grooved, and with elongated jaws like the modern Gavials : the other, 

 named Stagonolepis^resemhled the existing Caimans, but with an elon- 

 gated skull like the Gavials ; the body was covered by bony scutes. 

 Both these reptiles are from the Trias, the latter from Elgin, Scot- 

 land ; the former from Stuttgart, Germany. In the Oolitic and 

 Liassic series the old type of long and slender-jawed Teleosaurs and 

 Steneosaurs with strong bony scutes was abundantly represented. 



From the Purbeck beds of Dorset we have a true Crocodilian, the 

 Goniopliolis ; and a dwarf species, Theriosuchus pusillus, Owen. 



A large Crocodile has been obtained from the Eocene Tertiary of 

 the Isle of Wight and from Hordwell, Hampshire ; and remains of 

 many species of Alligators, Crocodiles and Gavials, from the Tertiary 

 rocks of India, may be seen in this case. 



The Dinosauria, Land-Reptiles. (Wall-cases 3, 4, and 5, and 

 Table-cases 7-12). — This remarkable group of huge terrestrial 

 reptiles is quite extinct. In some of them there appear to have 

 been bony dorsal plates and spines present, others were without 

 such defences. Most of these animals had flat or biconcave centra to 

 their vertebrae, a few of the anterior vertebras had hollow cups behind. 

 Two pairs of limbs were always present, furnished with strong-clawed 

 digits. 



They were probably to some extent amphibious in their habits, but 

 their limbs were well fitted for progression on the land. 



The skeleton of a small Dinosaurian reptile, of which a beautiful cast 

 may be seen in Table-case 3, the original being preserved at Munich, 

 named Compsognathus longipes, has been found entire in the Lithographic 

 stone of Solenhofeu, and from the relative proportions of its limbs we 

 cannot but conclude that it must have "hopped, or walked in an erect 



