SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
259 
“beak much produced, foramen very large and circular, deltidium large,’’ 
and only one specimen was obtained by the discoverer. In addition to the 
| foregoing, a very curious, deformed specimen of Morris’s T. Celtica was 
found, it has a produced and incurved beak, with a deep groove running 
along the middle of the perforated valve, the smaller valve being marked by 
a corresponding elevation. Mr. Lankester, in contrasting the number of 
forms found in our British lower greensand strata with that of the 
continental beds, observes, “ There is no reason why such forms as 
T. diphyoides , T. hippopus , and others associated with a common British 
species, T \ sella , in the Upper Neocomian or Urgonian beds of France, 
should not be met with in this country.” We agree with him in thinking 
that, geologists should not be content with such negative evidence, but 
should hope to fill the empty spaces in our lists, in course of time. 
Anatomy of Plesiosaurus Cramptoni . — A splendid fossil which lay in one 
of the houses of the Zoological Society of Ireland, from the year 1852 till 
very recently, has at length fallen into the hands of the Royal Dublin 
Society, and has been made the subject of an admirable memoir by Messrs. 
Carte and Bailey. The fossil was originally obtained from the liassic 
beds, near Whitby, in Yorkshire, on the property of the Marquis of 
Normanby, by whom it was presented to the late Sir Philip Crampton, of 
Dublin. A rough section of the beds in which the specimen was found is 
attached to the memoir, and from it we perceive that the fossil lay at a 
depth of 110 feet from the surface, in a stratum of aluminous shale, which 
itself was covered, from below upwards, with a layer of cement nodules, 
one of inferior oolitic ironstone, one of marl, and one of sandstone. The 
skeleton measures, in the line of its vertebrae, twenty-two feet two inches, 
and in width fully thirteen feet. It lies in the prone position, resting on 
the central surface, and has the head and neck slightly inclined to the 
right side. The skull has been almost entirely cleared of matrix, and, 
with the exception of the zygomatic bones, is quite perfect. The vertebral 
column has in part fallen over to the right side, so that the lateral surfaces 
of the conical vertebrae are distinctly seen with their large neurapophyses, 
and occasionally with their peculiar hatchet-shaped ribs. The bodies of 
the dorsal vertebrae are almost entirely concealed, but the massive processes 
project above the surface. The caudal portion of the spine has suffered 
dislocation, especially that portion of it which joins the sacrum. The ribs 
are remarkably well seen, spreading out nearly in their natural position. 
The pectoral extremities pass out at right angles with the column, and one 
of the ventral extremities is placed likewise, the other being more parallel 
with the spine. The total number of vertebrae is ninety-one , those of P. 
Zetlandicus and P. Macrocephalus being respectively ninety-six and ninety- 
five. The teeth are like those of a crocodile, irregularly arranged, and 
embedded in sockets. There are about 120 teeth in P. Cramptnoi , the 
largest of them measuring an inch in diameter at its base. The fossil has 
been named in compliment to the distinguished Irish surgeon who 
presented it to the Society, P. Cramptoni . The communication of Messrs. 
Carte and Bailey has appended to it a series of well-executed lithographs, 
which certainly in point of style equal anything we have hitherto seen 
in this way.-— Vide Dublin Quarterly Journal of Science , October, 1863. 
