The Medals of Creation, Volumes 1 and 2 / First Lessons in Geology and the Study of Organic Remains

by Gideon Algernon Mantell

[700] Phil. Trans, for 1726, vol. xxxiv.

[701] Ample description and figures of this highly interesting fossil are given by Cuvier, Oss. Foss. tom. v. part ii. p. 431, pl. xxv. xxvi.

Lign. 243. Cryptobranchus Scheuchzeri: ¹/₁₁ nat. size.
Tertiary. Œningen.

LABYRINTHODON.

Labyrinthodon. Ly. p. 290-293; Wond. p. 550. By far the most interesting evidence of the existence of Batrachian reptiles in the earlier ages of our planet has been afforded by Professor Jäger’s discovery of the skull, teeth, and other remains of gigantic extinct animals, allied to the Salamander, in the Upper New Red Sandstone (Keuper) of Wirtemberg.[702]

[702] Über die Fossile Reptilien welche in Würtemberg aufgefunden worden sind, von Dr. Geo. Friedr. Jäger. 4to. Stuttgart, 1828. See also Hermann von Meyer’s Notice of the Saurians of the Muschelkalk, Banter Sandstein, and Keuper, Quart. Geol. Journ. vol. iv. pt. ii. p. 40.

These remains were referred by this eminent physician and naturalist to saurian genera, although the double condyle of the occipital bone indicated Batrachian affinities. It was reserved, however, for our distinguished countryman, Professor Owen, to correct the error into which the German savant had fallen,—remove the obscurity in which the subject was involved,—determine the natural relations of the original,—and develope a modification of dental organization of the most unexpected and interesting character.

Dr. Lloyd, of Leamington, having discovered some fossil teeth and bones in the light-coloured sandstone of the New Red, at Warwick and Leamington, submitted them to Professor Owen, who, struck with their general resemblance to the teeth of the gigantic Salamandroïdes of Wirtemberg, instituted a microscopic examination of the British and German specimens. The result proved that the teeth from both localities possessed a remarkable and complicated structure, produced by the convergence of numerous inflected folds of the external layer of cement towards the pulp-cavity; to which, as we have already seen ([p. 666]), a very slight approach was made in the tooth of the Ichthyosaurus, and a still closer approximation by the teeth of certain fishes (Lepidosteus, [p. 616]). From the intricate meanderings or labyrinthine inflections observable in the sections of these teeth, Professor Owen has given the name of Labyrinthodon to these extinct Batrachian reptiles, and has determined five British species; one of which (L. Jægeri) he conceives to be identical with a species described by my friend, Dr. Jäger.