DRAGONS OF OLD TIME 
133 
No entire skeleton of the Megalosaur has ever been found, but 
there was enough material to enable Dr. Buckland, Professor 
Owen, and Professor Phillips to form a very fair idea of its general 
structure. But Ceratosaurus (p. 137) is completely known. It 
should be mentioned here that Dr. Mantell, the enthusiastic 
geologist to whose labours palaeontologists are greatly indebted, 
had previously discovered similar teeth and bones in the 
Wealdeu strata of Tilgate Forest. Sherborne, in Dorset, is another 
locality which has yielded a fine specimen of parts of both 
jaws with teeth. A cast of this may be seen in the geological 
collection at South Kensington. 
The portion of a lower jaw in the Oxford Museum is twelve 
inches long, with a row of 
nine teeth, or sockets for teeth. 
The structure of the teeth 
leaves no doubt as to the car- 
nivorous habits of the creature. 
With a length of perhaps thirty 
feet (see p. 139), capable of free 
and rapid movement on land, with strong hind limbs, short 
head, with long pointed teeth, and formidable claws to its 
feet, the Megalosaur must have been without a rival among 
the carnivorous reptiles on this side of the world. It probably 
walked for the most part on its hind legs, as depicted in our 
illustration, and Professors Huxley and Owen, on examining 
the bones in the Oxford Museum, were much impressed with 
the bird-like character of some parts of the skeleton, showing 
an approach to the ostrich type. The form of the teeth, as 
pointed out by Dr. Buckland, exhibits a remarkable combination 
of contrivances. 
The genus Megalosaurus — now rendered classic through the 
Fig. 42. — Lower jaw-bone of Megalo- 
sauruSf with teeth. 
