Search -
Fossils of the Yorkshire Lias Described From Nature
Fossils of the Yorkshire Lias Described From Nature Author:M. Simpson General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1884 Original Publisher: John Wheldon Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can se... more »lect from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: 1. Teleosaubus Chapmanni, Konig Head with an excessively long, slender beak, gradually tapering to a narrow snout, where there is a sudden depression. The largest, and upon the whole, the most perfect specimen which has yet been obtained is now in the Whitby Museum, and was discovered in the Alum Shale of the Upper Lias at Saltwick, in 1824. A considerable portion of the beak had been broken off previous to the discovery; but the length of the remaining parts still measures 15 feet 6 inches ; so that we may suppose the whole length of the animal, when alive, to have been about 17 feet or 18 feet. The hind legs are very perfect, some of the claws still remaining. It is also covered in some places, both on the back and belly, with scales, similar to those of recent species, so there can be no doubt of its analogy with recent crocodiles; especially with one which inhabits the Ganges, L. Gangetica, Linn. As this animal was fully and accurately described by the Eev. Dr. Young at the time of its discovery, and more recently by Professor Owen, along with other Saurian remains, in his valuable work on British Fossil Eeptiles, my remarks on this, and the other species of this order, will be very brief. The first specimen, of which we have any account, was discovered January, 1758, by Messrs. Chapman and Wooller, at the mouth of Whitby harbour. It was 12 feet long, and is described and figured in the Philosophical Transactions, and also in the Gentleman's Magazine of that period. Judging by the rude figures and the descriptions there given, there can be no doubt that it was the...« less