STONESFIELD QUARRY. 
203 
and have been speedily buried in the calcareous sediment 
then in the course of deposition. From the fact that 
certain individuals have even preserved traces of colour 
upon their skin, we are certain that they were entombed 
before decomposition of their soft parts had taken place.” 1 
The Stonesfield quarry, near Oxford, which yielded 
such prolific spoils to his geological hammer, is described 
in the following words :— 
“ At this place, a single bed of calcareous and sandy 
slate, not six feet thick, contains an admixture of terres¬ 
trial animals and plants with shells that are decidedly 
marine ; the bones of Divelphys (Opossum), Megalosaurus, 
and P-terodactyle are so mixed with Ammonites, Nautili, 
and Belemnites, and many other species of marine shells, 
that there can be little doubt that this formation was 
deposited at the bottom of a sea, not far distant from 
some ancient shore. We may account for the presence 
of remains of terrestrial animals in such a situation by 
supposing their carcases to have been floated from land 
at no great distance from their place of sub-marine 
interment.” 2 
It was in these Stonesfield quarries that the megalo¬ 
saurus was discovered; but, before giving Buckland’s 
account of the monster, it may be convenient to mention 
the specimen which Frank Buckland calls, in his 
“Curiosities of Natural History,” “the great gem of the 
Stonesfield fossils, the jaw of the Phascolotherium, 3 a 
small marsupial or pouched animal (hence such a big 
name for such a little creature : phascolos , a leathern bag, 
1 Bridgewater, vol. i., p. 124. 
2 Bridgewater, vol. i., p. 122. 
3 Lower jaw and teeth of Phascolotherium Bucklandi from great 
oolite (Stonesfield). Oxford Museum, table-case 14; Fig. 97, B.M.N.H. 
