58 
EXTINCT MONSTERS. 
Although of considerable size, it probably had to seek its food, as 
well as its safety, chiefly by artifice and concealment. The fish- 
lizard, its contemporary, must have been a formidable rival and a 
dangerous enemy, whom to attack would be unadvisable. 
Speaking of the habits of the long-necked sea-lizard, Mr. Cony- 
beare, in his second paper, already alluded to, says, “ That it 
was aquatic, is evident from the form of its paddles ; that it was 
marine, is almost equally so, from the remains with which it is uni- 
versally associated ; that it may occasionally have visited the shore, 
the resemblance of its extremities to those of the turtle may lead 
us to conjecture ; its motion, however, must have been very 
awkward on land ; its long neck must have impeded its progress 
through the water, presenting a striking contrast to the organisa- 
tion which so admirably fits the Ichthyosaurus to cut through the 
waves. 
‘‘ May it not therefore be concluded (since, in addition to these 
circumstances, its respiration must have required frequent access 
of air) that it swam upon or near the surface, arching back its 
long neck like the swan, occasionally darting it down at the fish 
which happened to float within its reach ? It may, perhaps, have 
lurked in shoah water along the coast, concealed among the sea- 
weed, and, raising its nostrils to a level with the surface from a 
considerable depth, may have found a secure retreat from the 
assaults of dangerous enemies ; while the length and flexibility of 
its neck may have compensated for the want of strength in its 
jaws and its incapacity for swift motion through the water, by the 
suddenness and agility of the attack which they enabled it to 
make on every animal fitted for its prey, which came within its 
extensive sweep.” 
More than twenty species of long-necked sea-lizards are known 
to geologists. 
Professor Owen, in his great work on British Fossil Reptiles^ 
when describing the huge Plesiosaurus dolichodirus from Dorset, 
suggests that the carcase of this monster, after it sank to the 
