Fig. 100.—Coprolite of Ichthyosaurus.
What an admirable privilege of science, which is able, by an examination of the simplest parts in the organisation of beings which lived ages ago, to give to our minds such solid teachings and such true enjoyments! “When we discover,” says Dr. Buckland, “in the body of an Ichthyosaurus the food which it has engulfed an instant before its death, when the intervals between its sides present themselves still filled with the remains of fishes which it had swallowed some ten thousand years ago, or a time even twice as great, all these immense intervals vanish, time disappears, and we find ourselves, so to speak, thrown into immediate contact with events which took place in epochs immeasurably distant, as if we occupied ourselves with the affairs of the previous day.”
Fig. 101.—Skull of Plesiosaurus restored. (Conybeare.)
a, profile; b, seen from above.
The name of Plesiosaurus (from the Greek words πλησιος, near, and σαυρος, lizard) reminds us that this animal, though presenting many peculiarities of general structure, is allied by its organisation to the Saurian or Lizard family, and, consequently, to the Ichthyosaurus.
The Plesiosaurus presents, in its organic structure, the most curious assemblage we have met with among the organic vestiges of the ancient world. The Plesiosaurus was a marine, air-breathing, carnivorous reptile, combining the characters of the head of a Lizard, the teeth of a Crocodile, a neck of excessive length resembling that of a Swan, the ribs of a Chameleon, a body of moderate size, and a very short tail, and, finally, four paddles resembling those of a Whale. Let us bestow a glance upon the remains of this strange animal which the earth has revealed, and which science has restored to us.
The head of the Plesiosaurus presents a combination of the characters belonging to the Ichthyosaurus, the Crocodile, and the Lizard. Its enormously long neck comprises a greater number of vertebræ than the neck of either the Camel, the Giraffe, or even the Swan, which of all the feathered race has the longest neck in comparison to the rest of the body. And it is to be remarked, that, contrary to what obtains in the Mammals, where the vertebræ of the neck are always seven, the vertebræ in birds increase in number with the length of the neck.
