THE DRAGONS OF OLD TIME— DINOSAURS. 73 
a limb-bone in the Oxford Museum, from the great Oolite formation 
near Woodstock, which was examined by Cuvier, and pronounced 
to have once belonged to a whale ; also a very large rib, which 
seemed whale-like. In 1838 Professor Owen, when collecting 
materials for his famous Report on the Fossil Reptiles of Great 
Britain^ inspected this remarkable limb-bone, and could not 
match it with any bones known among the whale tribe ; and yet 
its structure, where exposed, was like that of the long bone 
(humerus) of the paddle of a whale. Later on, he abandoned 
the idea that it once belonged to a whale, and it was thought that 
the extinct animal in question might have been a reptile of the 
crocodilean order. In time, a fine series of limb-bones and 
vertebrae was added to the Oxford Museum by Professor Phillips 
(Dr. Buckland’s successor at Oxford), who pronounced them to 
be Dinosaurian. The name “ Cetiosaurus ” ^ (or Whale-lizard), 
originally given by Owen, was unfortunate, because there is really 
nothing whale-like about it, except a certain coarse texture of 
some of the bones. 
In 1848 Dr. Buckland announced the discovery of another 
limb-bone (a femur), which Owen referred to Cetiosaurus ; it was 
four feet three inches in length. Between 1868 and 1870, how- 
ever, a considerable portion of a skeleton was discovered in the 
same formation at Kirtlington Station, near Oxford. These 
remains were the subject of careful examination by Professors 
Owen and Phillips. The femur this time was five feet four inches 
long. Their studies threw much light on the nature and habits 
of Cetiosaurus. 
Although showing in many ways an approach to the crocodile 
type of reptile, yet it was perceived from the nature of the limbs 
that they were better fitted for walking on land than are those of 
a crocodile, with its sprawling limbs. Still, Professor Owen was 
careful to point out that the vertebrae of its long tail indicate 
suitability as a powerful swimming organ, and concluded that the 
^ Greek — ketion^ whale ; sauros, lizard. 
