82 
EXTINCT MONSTERS 
marine, is almost equally so, from the remains with which it is 
universally 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 
organisation 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 shoal-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 B7'itish Fossil Reptiles, 
when describing the huge Plesiosaurus dolichodirus from Dorset, 
suggests that the carcase of this monster, after it sank to the 
bottom of the sea, was preyed upon by some carnivorous animal 
(perhaps sharks). It seems, he says, as if a bite of the neck had 
pulled out of place the eighth to the twelfth vertebrae. Those at 
the base of the neck are scattered and dispersed as if through 
