Fig. 138.—Tooth of Megalosaurus.
The Megalosaurus found in the ferruginous sands of Cuckfield, in Sussex, in the upper beds of the Hastings Sands, must have been at least sixty or seventy feet long. Cuvier considered that it partook both of the structure of the Iguana and the Monitors, the latter of which belong to the Lacertian Reptiles which haunt the banks of the Nile and tropical India. The Megalosaurus was probably an amphibious Saurian. The complicated structure and marvellous arrangement of the teeth prove that it was essentially carnivorous. It fed probably on other Reptiles of moderate size, such as the Crocodiles and Turtles which are found in a fossil state in the same beds. The jaw represented in [Fig. 137] is the most important fragment of the animal we possess. It is the lower jaw, and supports many teeth: it shows that the head terminated in a straight muzzle, thin and flat on the sides, like that of the Gavial, the Crocodile of India. The teeth of the Megalosaurus were in perfect accord with the destructive functions with which this formidable creature was endowed. They partake at once of the nature of a knife, sabre, and saw. Vertical at their junction with the jaw, they assume, with the increased age of the animal, a backward curve, giving them the form of a gardener’s pruning-knife ([Fig. 138]; also c. [Fig. 179]). After mentioning some other particulars, respecting the teeth, Buckland says: “With teeth constructed so as to cut with the whole of their concave edge, each movement of the jaws produced the combined effect of a knife and a saw, at the same time that the point made a first incision like that made by a point of a double-cutting sword. The backward curvature taken by the teeth at their full growth renders the escape of the prey when once seized impossible. We find here, then, the same arrangements which enable mankind to put in operation many of the instruments which they employ.”
Fig. 139.—Nasal Horn of Iguanodon.
Two-thirds natural size.
Fig. 140.—Ammonites rostratus.
(Upper Greensand.)
The Iguanodon, signifying Iguana-toothed (from the Greek word, οδους, tooth), was more gigantic still than the Megalosaurus; one of the most colossal, indeed, of all the Saurians of the ancient world which research has yet exposed to the light of day. Professor Owen and Dr. Mantell were not agreed as to the form of the tail; the former gentleman assigning it a short tail, which would affect Dr. Mantell’s estimate of its probable length of fifty or sixty feet; the largest thigh-bone yet found measures four feet eight inches in length. The form and disposition of the feet, added to the existence of a bony horn ([Fig. 139]), on the upper part of the muzzle or snout, almost identifies it as a species with the existing Iguanas, the only Reptile which is known to be provided with such a horn upon the nose; there is, therefore, no doubt as to the resemblance between these two animals; but while the largest of living Iguanas scarcely exceeds a yard in length, its fossil congener was probably fifteen or sixteen times that length. It is difficult to resist the feeling of astonishment, not to say incredulity, which creeps over one while contemplating so striking a disproportion as that which subsists between this being of the ancient world and its ally of the new.
The Iguanodon carried, as we have said, a horn on its muzzle; the bone of its thigh, as we have seen, surpassed that of the Elephant in size; the form of the bone and feet demonstrates that it was formed for terrestrial locomotion; and its dental system shows that it was herbivorous.