MIDDLE EOCENE, ENGLAND. 261 
Fig. 193. 
Palceophis typho&us^ Owen; an Eocene sea-serpent. Bracklesham. 
ct, &. Vertebra, with long neural spine preserved, c. Two vertebras articulated 
together. 
than 240 are peculiar to this subdivision of the British Eo- 
cene series, while 70 are common to the Older London Clay, 
Fig. 194. 
Defensive spine of Ostracion. Bracklesham. 
Fig. 195. 
and 140 to the Newer Barton Clay. The volutes and cow¬ 
ries of this formation, as well as the lunulites and corals, fa¬ 
vor the idea of a warm climate 
having prevailed, which is borne 
out by the discovery of a ser¬ 
pent, Palmophis typhosus (see Fig. 
193), exceeding,according to Pro¬ 
fessor Owen, twenty feet inlength, 
and allied in its osteology to the 
Boa, Python, Coluber, and Hy- 
drus. The compressed form and 
diminutive size of certain caudal 
vertebrae indicate so much anal¬ 
ogy with Hydrus as to induce Professor Owen to pronounce 
this extinct ophidian to have been marine.* Among the 
companions of the sea-snake of Bracklesham was an extinct 
crocodile {Gavialis Dixoni^ Owen), and numerous fish, such 
as now frequent the seas of warm latitudes, as the Ostracion 
of the family Balistidae, of which a dorsal spine is figured 
(see Fig. 194), and gigantic rays of the genus Myliohates 
(see Fig. 195). 
The teeth of sharks also, of the genera Carcharodon^ Oto- 
dus^ Lamna^ Galeocerdo^ and others, are abundant. (See 
Figs. 196, 197, 193,199.) 
* Palaeont. Soc. Monograph. Rept., pt. ii., p. 61. 
Dental plates of Myliohates Edwardsi. 
Bracklesham Bay. 
Dixon’s Fossils of Sussex, PI. 8. 
