Another genus of Reptiles appears in the Middle Oolite, of which we have had a glimpse in the Lias and Great Oolite of the preceding section. This is the Teleosaurus, which the recent investigations of M. E. Deslongchamps allow of re-construction. The Teleosaurus enables us to form a pretty exact idea of these Crocodiles of the ancient seas—these cuirassed Reptiles, which the German geologist Cotta describes as “the great barons of the kingdom of Neptune, armed to the teeth, and clothed in an impenetrable panoply; the true filibusters of the primitive seas.”
The Teleosaurus resembled the Gavials of India. The former inhabited the banks of rivers, perhaps the sea itself; they were longer, more slender, and more active than the living species; they were about thirty feet in length, of which the head may be from three to four feet, with their enormous jaws sometimes with an opening of six feet, through which they could engulf, in the depths of their enormous throat, animals of considerable size.
The Teleosaurus cadomensis is represented on the opposite page ([Plate XVIII.]), after the sketch of M. E. Deslongchamps, carrying from the sea in its mouth a Geoteuthis, a species of Calamary of the Oolitic epoch. This creature was coated with a cuirass both on the back and belly. In order to show this peculiarity, a living individual is represented on the shore, and a dead one is floating on its back in shallow water, leaving the ventral cuirass exposed.
Behind the Teleosaurus cadomensis in the engraving, another Saurian, the Hylæosaurus, is represented, which makes its appearance in the Cretaceous epoch. We have here adopted the restoration which has been so ably executed by Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins, at the Crystal Palace, Sydenham.
Fig. 120.—Eryon arctiformis.
Besides the numerous Fishes with which the Oolitic seas swarmed, they contained some Crustaceans, Cirripedes, and various genera of Mollusca and Zoophytes. Eryon arctiformis, represented in [Fig. 119], belongs to the class of Crustaceans, of which the spiny lobster is the type. Among the Mollusca were some Ammonites, Belemnites, and Oysters, of which many hundred species have been described. Of these we may mention Ammonites refractus, A. Jason and A. cordatus, Ostrea dilatata, Terebratula diphya, Diceras arietena, Belemnites hastatus, and B. Puzosianus. In some of the finely-laminated clays the Ammonites are very perfect, but somewhat compressed, with the outer lip or margin of the aperture entire ([Fig. 120]). Similar prolongations have been noticed in Belemnites found by Dr. Mantell in the Oxford Clay, near Chippenham.
