296 
EXTINCT MONSTERS 
Sir Charles Lyell said : The vertebral column of one skeleton 
found by Dr. Buckley at a spot visited by me, extended to a 
length of nearly seventy feet, and, not far ofp, part of another 
backbone, nearly fifty feet long, was dug up. I obtained 
evidence, during a short excursion, of so many localities of 
this fossil animal within a distance of ten miles, as to lead 
me to conclude that they must have belonged to at least forty 
individuals.” 
This animal is particularly interesting as marking the first 
appearance of the very distinct order of cetaceans, so unlike any 
other order, except the Sirenia (Manatee and Dugong). 
Professor D’Arcy Thompson thinks that Zeuglodon and other 
members of its family are related to the seals, and have no direct 
affinities with the cetacea ; their teeth certainly are very similar, 
but unfortunately we do not at present know what their limbs 
were like — though one would expect, from the long pointed head 
of Zeuglodon, that the body also was long like a whale’s, and 
adapted for rapid progress through the water, rather than for 
progression on land. One cannot easily picture a creature with 
such a skull walking on the land, even in the awkward manner 
of a seal; but we must wait for further evidence on this point. 
A portion of a skull of Zeuglodon was found in the Barton Clay, 
an Eocene deposit in Hampshire.^ 
We have already recorded one or two cases in which curious 
mistakes have been made by palseontologists ; but the student 
soon finds how many and great are the difficulties that have to 
be overcome by those who study lost .forms of life, difficulties 
which in most cases are due to the imperfection of the material 
1 The late Professor Dames, of Berlin, has described certain bony plates 
found with Zeuglodon remains, which probably indicate that its back was pro- 
tected by an armour of scutes (see Natural Science^ vol. iv. p. 175). 
