MOSASAURUS. 
215 
SECTION VII, 
MOSASAURUS, OR GREAT ANIMAL OF MAESTRICHT. 
The Mosasauriis has been long known by the 
name of the great animal of Maestricht, occur- 
ing near that city, in the calcareous freestone 
which forms the most recent deposit of the 
cretaceous formation, and contains Ammonites, 
Belemnites, Hamites, and many other shells 
belonging to the chalk, mixt with numerous 
remains of marine animals that are peculiar to 
Itself. A nearly perfect head of this animal was 
discovered in 1780, and is now in the Museum 
nt Paris. This celebrated head during many 
years baffled all the skill of Naturalists; some 
considered it to be that of a Whale, others of a 
Crocodile ; but its true place in the animal king- 
dom was first suggested by Adrian Camper, and 
at length confirmed by Cuvier. By their inves- 
tigafions it is proved to have been a gigantic 
marine reptile, most nearly allied to the Monitor.* 
c geological epoch at which the Mosasaurus 
and U?'' ^ of Lizards, frequenting marshes 
this *" climates; they have received 
name from the prevailing, but absurd, notion that they give 
^^rning by a whistling noise, of the approach of Crocodiles and 
tlie^*”^"* species, the Lacerta nilotica, which devours 
eggs of Crocodiles, has been sculptured on the monuments 
ancient Egypt. 
