450 



FOSSIL SKELETON 



XXXII. — Account of a Singular Fossil Skele- 

 ton, discovered at Whitby, in February 1819. 



By the Rev. George Young, A. M. Whitby, Yorkshire. 

 (Read Mth April 1819. J 



O f the extraneous fossils occurring in the vast bed 

 of aluminous schistus on the Yorkshire coast, none 

 are more interesting, than those petrified bones 

 which have been supposed to belong to an animal of 

 the crocodile family. A skeleton of this kind, about 

 twelve feet long, was found in the year 1 758, an ac- 

 count of which was given in the 50th volume of the 

 Philosophical Transactions, and the 30th volume of 

 the Gentleman's Magazine. Another, measuring 

 fifteen feet, was discovered in 1791 ; hut no correct 

 drawing of it was obtained *. A very curious fossil 



* The drawing mentioned in the History of Whitby, 

 p. 780, is inaccurate in several particulars, especially as to 

 the appearance of the ribs. 



