296 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



sequently by Professor Owen, in the volume of the Palseontographical 

 Society's publications for 1851. 



The chalk was dissected away, so as to admit of the removal of a 

 great portion of the dorsal shell, and thus some 

 of the vertebrae, four plates of the plastron, and 

 a coracoid bone were brought to view. 



Since the discovery of the Chelonia Benstedii, 

 Mrs. Smith, of Tunbridge Yfells, has procured 

 from the same pit a series of marginal and ster- 

 nal plates of a turtle of very large size. These 

 specimens have been admirably cleared from the 

 chalk, and now form a part of her most inter- 

 esting and valuable collection. 



In 1847, another fossil turtle was found in an 

 adjoining pit in the Lower Chalk. It corre- 

 sponded in size and number of plates with, in- 

 deed it was almost a facsimile of, the original 

 Chelonia Benstedii. 



Perhaps the most interesting fossils found in 

 this locality, were some long, slender, cylindrical 

 bones, which Professor Owen considered, in the 

 iirst instance (1840), if they were the remains of 

 a bird at all, as being more allied to the Alba- 

 tross than to any other. The bones there no- 

 w'nlli'v p'if^ ticed are the portion of a humerus nine inches 

 long, with one extremity nearly entire, but the 

 other broken completely off. The uncertainty expressed by Professor 

 Owen was afterwards cleared up by the discovery, by Dr. Bowerbank, 

 of the head and teeth of a new species of Pterodactyle, described by 

 him in the Geological Society's Journal, 1845, when he assigned 

 these bones, from their microscopic structure, to that extraordinary 

 class of flying reptiles. 



The fine specimen of DoUchosaurus, described in the Palseontolo- 

 gical Society's Volume for 1851, was discovered here by Mrs. Smith, 

 of Tunbridge Wells, in 1830. A similar fossil (probably part even 

 of the same specimen) was obtained from this same locality by Sir 

 Philip Egerton, in 1840, and was. briefly described by Professor Owen 

 as the remains of a lizard, consisting of a series of small \"ertebra3 

 in their natural position. The vertebrae are united by ball-and- 

 socket joints, and they are proved to belong to the Saurian class of 

 reptiles by the presence of many long slender ribs, and by the conver- 

 sion of two vertebrae into a sacrum. Portions of an ischium and a pubes 

 are connected witli the left side of the sacrum, and demonstrate that 

 tlie reptile Imd hinder extremities. These typical parts are referred 

 to particularly^ as the specimen otherwise has certainly more the ap- 

 pearance of a serpent tlian a lizard. Serpents have long, slender ribs, 

 and therefore the saurian character depends alone on the assumed 

 sacrum, as the extremities are wanting. 



In December, 1842, Professor Owen described a fossil paddle which 



Kg. 2 



from HaUin^ Chalk Pit 



