MOSASAURUS. 215 
SECTION VII. 
MOSASAURUS, OR GREAT ANIMAL OF MAESTRICHT. 
The Mosasaurus has been long known by the 
name of the great animal of Maestricht, occur- 
ring near that city, in the calcareous freestone 
which forms the most recent deposit of the 
cretaceous formation, and contains Ammonites, 
Belemnites, Hamites, and many other shells 
belonging to the chalk, mixt with numerous 
remains of marine animals that are peculiar to 
itself. A nearly perfect head of this animal was 
discovered in 1780, and is now in the Museum 
at Paris. This celebrated head during many 
years bafRed all the skill of Naturalists ; some 
considered it to be that of a Whale, others of a 
Crocodile ; but its true place in the animal king- 
dom was first suggested by Adrian Camper, and 
at length confirmed by Cuvier. By their inves- 
tigations it is proved to have been a gigantic 
marine reptile, most nearly allied to the Monitor.* 
The geological epoch at which the Mosasaurus 
* 
The Monitors form a genus of Lizards, frequenting marshes 
and the banks of rivers in hot climates; they have received 
this name from the prevaiUng, but absurd, notion that they give 
warning by a whistling noise, of the approach of Crocodiles and 
Caymans. One species, the Lacerta nilotica, which devours 
the eggs of Crocodiles, has been sculptured on the monuments 
of ancient Egypt. 
m-^ 
