REPTILES OF THE CHALK. 
151 
les coi’ps des vertebres se raccoiirsissent, et presqiie, 
des son commencement, ils sont mois longs qiie 
larges et que hauts. Leiir longueur finit par etre 
moitie moindre que leur hauteur.” * 
From this investigation, I think we may, with- 
out hesitation, refer the vertebrae before us to the 
fossil animal of Maestricht. t The specimen fig. 2. 
is evidently one of the posterior dorsal vertebne ; 
those represented fig. 1. are two of the posterior 
vertebrmof the tail. 
In conclusion, it may be observed, that Cuvier 
has ascertained that the original animal formed an 
intermediate genus between the lizards with a 
long and forked tongue, including the mojiitors 
and common lizards ; and those with a short tongue 
and dentated palates, comprising the iguanas, mar- 
hres, and anolis. This genus, he thinks, would 
only have been allied to the crocodile, by the ge- 
neral characters of the lizards. The length of the 
entire skeleton appears to have been nearly twenty- 
four feet ; the head being equal to a sixth of the 
whole length. The tail must have been very- 
strong, and the width of its extremity so consider- 
able, as to have rendered it a powerful oar, by 
which the animal could stem the most agitated 
waters. 
From this peculiar structure, and from the cha- 
racter of the organic remains with which those of 
* Animaux Fossiles, tome iv. Animal de Maestricht, p. 20, 21. 
f This opinion is confirmed by the observations of Mr. Kdnig, who 
obliged me by comparing the drawings of the Sussex specimens with 
the vertebrae of the Maestricht monitor, in the British Museum, and 
expressed himself perfectly convinced of their identity. 
L I 
