No. 14.—Ichthyosaurus communis.
Of this species, which was the most “common,” when first discovered in 1824, but which has since been surpassed by other species in regard to the known number of individuals, the head is restored, as protruded from the water, to the right of the foregoing species.
The Ichthyosaurus communis is characterised by its relatively large teeth, with expanded, deeply-grooved bases, and round conical furrowed crowns; the upper jaw contains, on each side, from forty to fifty of such teeth. The fore-paddles are three times larger than the hind ones. With respect to the size which it attained, the Ichthyosaurus communis seems only to be second to the Ichthyosaurus platyodon. In the museum of the Earl of Enniskillen, there is a fossil skull of the Ichthyosaurus communis which measures, in length, two feet nine inches, indicating an animal of at least twenty feet in length.