10 
Dinosa u via — Cetiosa urns a nd Ornithopsis 
Cetiosaurus, 
or “ Whale 
Lizard.” 
Ornithopsis. 
Wall-case, 
No. 3. 
tion. There are no examples of Diplodocus at present in the 
Collection. 
The Cetiosaurus , or “Whale-Lizard,” thus named by Sir 
Richard Owen, from some resemblance in the form and struc- 
ture of the posterior vertebras to those of a whale (it must be 
borne in mind that the Cetiosaurs have really no affinities to 
the whales in any way whatever, save in name !) is another 
genus of these huge Saurians, whose remains are found in our 
own island, and of which three species are recorded, the earliest 
in geological time being the C. longus (Owen). Of this species 
a large portion of a skeleton of the same animal was discovered 
in 1870, in the Great Oolite at Enslow Bridge, near Oxford, and 
is preserved in the Oxford University Museum ; but plaster-casts 
of the large bones of the extremities are placed in the case. 
The femur is 5ijr ft. long, and the humerus 4 ft. 3 inches. The 
anterior vertebrae are large, with cup and ball articulations, they 
have large cavities in the centra, and are buttressed like those 
of Ornithopsis. an allied genus. A huge arm-bone (humerus) 
nearly 5 ft. long, from the Kimmeridge Clay, Weymouth, has 
been referred to this genus, under the name of C. liumero- 
cristatus ; it is at present the only evidence of the species 
known. C. brevis , from the Wealden of Sussex and the Isle 
of Wight, is represented by caudal and dorsal vertebrae, &c., 
including the original specimens from Dr. Mantell’s collection, 
upon which the genus was founded. 
Here are exhibited a series of vertebrae and other remains of 
a huge Dinosaur, named Ornithopsis Hulkei ( Seeley) obtained 
from the Wealden formation, Brixton, Isle of Wight. 
Ornithopsis was remarkable for the extreme lightness in 
construction of the bones of its neck and back, combined with 
great strength. A single dorsal vertebra had a centrum 
10 inches long, and 25 inches in circumference at the front or 
convex end, whilst it measured in height to the summit of the 
dorsal spine 25 inches ; and in breadth across the transverse 
processes 19 inches. A single centrum of one of the cervical or 
neck vertebra) measures 32 inches in length. 
The centrum of each vertebra is composed of highly cellular 
bony tissue (like the frontal portion of the skull of the ele- 
phants, and has a large cavity on each side.* The dorsal and 
cervical vertebrae are opisthoccelous (he., hollow behind, and 
convex in front), and each had articulations for a double- 
headed rib. The spinous processes are convex, and greatly 
developed, being rendered at the same time both extremely 
light and strong by struts and buttresses and thin sheets of 
bone, with large and deep recesses between. 
* This cellular structure disappears as we reacli the posterior vertebrae of 
the sacral and caudal series, which are solid and destitute of the cavities 
characteristic of the thoracic and cervical vertebrae. 
