117 
asper is armed with formidable spines. The more recent 
species were remarkable for the beauty and variety of their spines, 
and highly esteemed from the earliest ages on account of the dye 
they yielded. The purple robes of the Romans owed their colour 
to these molluscs. Murex tenuispina is known as Venus’s Comb. 
The Pectens or Pilgrims’ shells are familiar fossils of the Barton 
beds. In olden days one of the large scallops was worn by pilgrims 
in front of their hats as a sign that they had visited the shrine of 
St. James in the Holy Land. 
Perhaps the most interesting fossils amongst the vertebrates 
are the bones of an extinct whale-like animal known as Zeuglodon 
(yoke-toothed). Such relics are said to be very uncommon in 
museum collections in this country. The British Museum possesses 
no parts of this animal from the Barton beds. The Zeuglodon 
was a Tertiary mammal described by Sir Richard Owen from the 
peculiar form of its molar teeth. The animal was probably about 
seventy feet long, and its habits were evidently carnivorous. The 
larger vertebrae, over a foot and a half long, were formerly so 
abundant in Alabama, in the Southern United States, that they 
were used for making walls or burned to get rid of them. On 
this side apparently the animals were comparatively rare. Other 
mammal relics are the teeth of Anthracotherium , an extinct 
animal intermediate between the river hog and the hippo¬ 
potamus. In the lignites of Savone remains of carnivores, 
mansupialia, bats, birds, crocodiles, tortoises, and fish occur along 
with those of the Anthracotherium. It is not improbable, there¬ 
fore, that similar animals were more or less associated with the 
Anthracotherium of the Hordwell oligocene deposits in this 
country. The fish remains consist of the palates and spines of 
monster skates or rays ( Myliobates) , described by Mr. Buller 
Newton as “very choice.’’ Some of the latter, he said, may have 
been obtained from the Bracklesham beds of Sussex. It may be 
interesting to mention that the relics of the Myliobates (mylias a 
millstone and batis a thorn-back), also known as Eagle rays in 
ancient days were remarkable for the extraordinary development 
of the median teeth in both jaws. Instead of pointed teeth they 
had flat tesselated dentary plates in each jaw, composed of distinct 
pieces, juxtaposed and connected by their margins, and united by 
fine sutures. These “ milling ” and “ grinding ” teeth occur 
abundantly in Tertiary strata. About twenty species have been 
found in the Isle of Sheppey, while only five species of existing 
Myliobates are known. There are also about three hundred 
specimens of teeth of sharks. They are mostly of one or two 
species. 
Zoological Collection. 
The collection in this branch is not yet far advanced owing 
to the exigencies of space and cases. Possibly one of the most 
interesting is the exhibit of Ecdyses (moults) of the common crab, 
oyer a period of three years, presented by Mr. J. H. Waddington, 
