ICHTHYOSAURUS. 171 
Figs. 1, 2), at once shows that the Ichthyosauri 
were Reptiles, partaking partly of the charac- 
ters of the modern Crocodiles, but more allied to 
Lizards. They approach nearest to Crocodiles 
in the form and arrangement of their teeth. 
The position of the nostril is not, as in Croco- 
diles, near the point of the snout; it is set, as 
in Lizards, near the anterior angle of the orbit of 
the eye. The most extraordinary feature of the 
head is the enormous magnitude of the eye, 
very much exceeding that of any living animal.* 
The expansion of the jaws must have been 
prodigious ; their length in the larger species, 
(Ichthyosaurus Platyodon), sometimes exceeding 
six feet ; the voracity of the animal was doubt- 
less in proportion to its powers of destruction. 
The neck was short, as in fishes. 
Teeth, 
The teeth of the Ichthyosaurus (PI. 11, b, c,) 
are conical, and much like those of the Croco- 
diles, but considerably more numerous, amount- 
ing in some cases to a hundred and eighty ; they 
vary in each species ; they are not enclosed in 
deep and separate sockets, as the teeth of Croco- 
* In the collection of Mr. Johnson at Bristol is a skull of 
Ichthyosaurus Platyodon, in which the longer diameter of the 
orbital cavity measures fourteen inches. 
