48 
EXTINCT MONSTERS. 
arranged in as many as seven or eight rows, while those of each 
finger are exceedingly numerous. Thus the whole structure 
forms a kind of bony pavement which must have been very 
supple. Such a limb would be one of the most efficient and 
powerful swimming organs known in the whole animal kingdom. 
In whales the fingers of the flippers are of the usual number, 
namely, five. Some species of fish-lizards had as many as over 
a hundred separate little bones in the fore-paddle. 
Another question naturally suggests itself : Were they viviparous, 
or did they lay eggs like crocodiles? This question seems to 
have been answered in favour of the first supposition ; and in the 
following interesting manner. It not infrequently happens that 
entire little skeletons of very small individuals are found under 
the ribs of large ones. They are invariably uninjured, and of 
the same species as the one that encloses them, and with the 
head pointing in one direction. Such specimens are most 
probably the fossilised remains of little fish-lizards, that were yet 
unborn when their mothers met with an untimely end (see p. 51). 
In some cases, however, they may be young ones that were 
swallowed. (See Appendix V.) 
The jaws of these hungry formidable monsters were provided 
with a series of formidable teeth — sometimes over two hundred 
in number — inserted in a long groove, and not in distinct sockets, 
as in the case of crocodiles. In some cases, sixty or more have 
been found on each side of the upper and lower jaws, giving a 
total of over two hundred and forty teeth ! The larger teeth may 
be two inches or more in length. 
The jaws were admirably constructed on a plan that combined 
lightness, elasticity, and strength. Instead of consisting of one 
piece only, they show a union of plates of bone, as in recent 
crocodiles. These plates are strongest and most numerous just 
where the greatest strength was wanted, and thinner and fewer 
towards the extremities of the jaw. A crocodile. Sir Samuel 
Baker says, in his Wild Beasts and their Ways, can bite a man in 
