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XIV. Reasons for giving the name Proteo-Saurus to the fossil 
skeleton which has been described. By Sir Everard Home, 
Bart. V. P. R. S. 
Read April 1, 1819. 
In the three Papers which I laid before the Society upon the 
subject of this fossil skeleton, I never ventured to hazard a 
conjecture upon the place in the chain of created beings, to 
which the animal belonged. 
There were many circumstances which proved it to be un- 
like any animal at present in existence ; some again making it 
an approach to the bird; others that connected it with fishes; so 
that I determined to prosecute the investigation till I had attained 
more satisfactory information respecting the skeleton, before 
I attempted to give the animal a name. This I think I have 
now done, the bones of the pelvis being the only ones not yet 
brought to light, and these are not necessary to enable us to 
make out the peculiar characteristics of the skeleton. 
The discovery of the animal having four feet, established 
by the annexed drawings, removed it almost entirely from 
the finny tribe, in which there is no instance of such a mode of 
progressive motion. 
It appears also distinct from the lacertae, in which there is 
no instance of cupped vertebrae. All that tribe, as well as 
snakes and frogs, have the vertebrae united by regularly 
formed ball and socket joints. 
These facts made it evident that the skeleton belonged to 
