SEA-SERPENTS, 
143 
American Cretaceous sea, and reached a length of seventy-five 
feet. It had a long projecting muzzle, somewhat like the snout 
of a sturgeon. Platecarpus and Tylosaurus had peculiarly sharp- 
pointed heads (see Fig. 40). 
Fig. 40. — Snout of Tylosaurus. (After Marsh.) 
A few words may be added here with regard to Professor 
Cope’s important discovery of Leiodon — a genus already alluded 
to as having been founded by Sir Richard Owen. The type 
specimen of Leiodon dyseplor,^ which first indicated the characters 
of this wonderful species, was obtained from the yellow beds of 
the Niobrara epoch of the Jornada del Muerto, near Fort McRae, 
New Mexico. The greater part of the remains have been 
described by Professor Leidy. But a second specimen, more 
complete in all respects, was discovered by Professor Cope’s 
exploring party during an expedition from Fort Wallace, Kansas, 
in 1871. This specimen he has fully described and figured in 
the report already referred to (p. 140). It is a very instructive 
specimen, including fifty of the vertebrae from all parts of the 
vertebral column, a large part of the cranium, with teeth, as well 
as important limb-bones. These precious relics were excavated 
from a chalk “ bluff,” or high bank. Fragments of the jaws were 
seen lying on the slope, and other portions entered the shale. On 
being followed, a part of the skull was taken from beneath the 
roots of a bush, and the vertebrae and limb-bones were found 
farther in. The series of vertebrae, after extending some way 
along the face of the bluff, finally turned into the hill, and were 
^ We retain the old spelling with the e as being nearer to the Greek, 
although Professor Cope writes it “ Liodon.” 
