REPTILIA. 
3 
Class III.—REPTILIA. 
Order I.— SQUAMATA. 
Sub-order 1. —Ophidia. 
The snakes appear to be essentially if not exclusively 
Tertiary reptiles, and their fossil remains are both rare and 
fragmentary. Fine portions of the vertebral column of sea- 
snakes (Palceophis) from the Lower Eocene '(London Clay) of 
Sheppey are exhibited; and there are also some detached 
vertebrae of another large sea-snake ( Pterosphenus ), which is 
found with Zeuglodon in the Eocene both of Alabama, U.S.A., 
and of the Fayum, Egypt. The largest known snake is an 
extinct kind of python, Gigantophis garstini, from the Middle 
Eocene of the Fayum, represented by vertebrae and a portion 
of jaw, which seem to show that the animal attained a length 
of not less than 50 or 60 feet. 
Sub-order. 2. —Lacertilia. 
Ordinary lizards are not definitely known before the 
Tertiary period, but a few detached jaws ( Macellodus ) from 
the Purbeck Beds, and teeth ( Coniasaums ) from the Chalk, 
may perhaps belong to reptiles of this kind. Like those of 
the snakes, all their fossil remains are very fragmentary, 
and a typical collection is exhibited in Table-case F. Some 
of the early Tertiary lizards are interesting on account of 
their distribution. Iguana , for example, which is now 
characteristic of tropical America, is represented by fossils in 
the Upper Eocene of Hampshire and in the Oligocene Phos¬ 
phorites of France. Among Pleistocene species, Far anus 
priscus, from the river deposits of Queensland, is noteworthy 
as being the largest known lizard, its length being probably 
not less than 6 feet. 
Sub-order 3. —Doliehosauria. 
During the Cretaceous period there were numerous 
swimming sea-reptiles, which seem to have been neither 
snakes nor lizards, but intermediate between these modern 
groups. They were of two kinds—one with a small head, 
Table-ease 
E. 
Table-case 
F. 
Table-ease 
F. 
