FOUND NEAR WHITBY. 



4-55 



perfect, especially on the upper side ; but is, on the 

 whole, an interesting animal remain. Some portions 

 of pyrites adhere to it, particularly three pyritous bi- 

 valves of the genus Tellina. It may be remarked, that 

 some parts of the large skeleton are also pyritous. 



From the exact correspondence between this pec- 

 toral fin and that figured in the Philosophical 

 Transactions for 1816, at p. 320., and from the gene- 

 ral resemblance which this Whitby petrifaction bears 

 to that in Bullock's Museum, described by Sir Eve- 

 rard Home in the Philosophical Transactions for 

 1814 and 1816, there can be no doubt that the ani- 

 mals of which these are the remains, have belonged 

 to the same genus, though they appear to be of 

 different species.' 



Sir Everard Home considers the Charmouth ani- 

 mal as allied to the shark family ; particularly in re- 

 gard to the conformation of its pectoral fin, which 

 he compares with that of the Squalus acanthus ; but 

 the animal of Whitby, and even that which he de- 

 scribes, may be viewed as more nearly connected 

 with the cetacea, especially those of the genus Del- 

 phinus. On comparing the cranium of the Delphi- 

 nus vulgaris, (fig. 3.) with the fossil cranium, (fig. 1.) 

 it will be seen, that, notwithstanding the compres- 

 sed and distorted state of the latter, there is a con- 

 siderable resemblance between them. They are si- 

 milar in the elongated form of the snout, and in the 

 number and shape of the teeth. The depressions 

 in the upper part of the cranium (F F) are nearly 



