454 ACCOUNT OF A FOSSIL SKELETON 



and may therefore have belonged to the middle of 

 the spine. 



To what class of animals this skeleton, and others 

 found at Whitby, should be assigned, it is difficult 

 to determine. They appear, however, to have little 

 or no alliance with the crocodile family. No por- 

 tion of any crustaceous covering has been found 

 with them, nor any part of the bones of the feet. 

 The teeth, indeed, resemble those of the crocodile, 

 'but differ from them materially in the regularity of 

 their size and their arrangement. The cranium is 

 totally unlike that of the crocodile, as the writer 

 found by comparing the drawing with a specimen 

 of the latter in Dr Barclay's Museum. Besides, 

 the vertebrae are evidently those of a fish, each being 

 in the form of a concave lens, hollow on both sides. 

 It further appears, that the animal has had a pec- 

 toral fin, similar to that in the drawing, fig. 2. 9 which 

 is a correct representation of a fossil fin in the pos- 

 session of Mr Bird, found about two years ago, not 

 far from the spot where the large skeleton has since 

 been discovered. In the general search, occasioned 

 by the discovery of the latter, some vertebra? of an 

 animal of the same description, but much smaller, 

 were found ; and, along with these, some fragments 

 of a pectoral fin, the same with fig. 2., but also 

 much smaller. Hence it may be inferred, that the 

 larger animal must also have had pectoral fins ; and it 

 is by no means unlikely, that the fin represented in 

 the drawing was one of them. It is somewhat im- 



