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XXVIII. Some Account of the fossil Remains of an Animal more 
nearly allied to Fishes than any of the other Classes of Animals, 
By Sir Everard Home, Bart. F. R, S. 
Read June 23, 1814. 
The study of comparative anatomy is not connned to the 
animals that at present inhabit the earth, but extends to the 
remains of such as existed in the most remote periods of an- 
tiquity; among these may be classed the specimen which forms 
the subject of the present Paper. 
That the bones of the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, 
crocodile, and of many other animals should be met with in 
a fossil state in this island, in such numbers as to make it ap- 
pear that at some distant period they were inhabitants of Great 
Britain, is perhaps one of the most wonderful circumstances 
that occurs in the history of the earth. 
To discover the changes that have taken place in our 
globe, which can account for the remains of animals only fitted 
to live in warm climates being found in so northern a situa- 
tion ; and to explain the circumstance of human bones never 
having been met with in a fossil state, is the province of the 
geologist. To examine such fossil bones, and to determine 
the class to which the animals belonged, comes within the 
sphere of inquiry of the anatomist, and considerably increases 
its extent. 
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