They had a wide geographical range; for their remains have been discovered in Arctic regions, in Europe, India, Ceram, North America, the east coast of Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. In American deposits they are represented by certain toothless forms, to which the name Sauranodon ("toothless lizard") has been given. These have been discovered by Professor Marsh, in the Jurassic strata of the Rocky Mountains. They were eight or nine feet long, and in every other respect resembled Ichthyosaurs. As we have endeavoured to indicate in our illustration, the fish-lizards flourished in seas wherein animal, and doubtless vegetable life was very abundant. Any one who has collected fossils from the Lias of England will have found how full it is of beautiful organic remains, such as corals, mollusca, encrinites, sea-urchins, and other echinoids, fishes, etc. The climate of this period in Europe was mild and genial, or even semi-tropical. Coral reefs and coral islands varied the landscape. There is just one more point of interest that ought not to be omitted; it refers to the manner in which these reptiles of the Lias age met their deaths, and were thus buried up in their rocky tombs. Sir Charles Lyell and other writers point out that the individuals found in those strata must have met with a sudden death and quick burial; for if their uncovered bodies had been left, even for a few hours, exposed to putrification and the attacks of fishes at the bottom of the sea, we should not now find their remains so completely preserved that often scarcely a single bone has been moved from its right place. What was the exact nature of this operation is at present a matter of doubt. CHAPTER IV. THE GREAT SEA-LIZARDS AND THEIR ALLIES. "The wonders of geology exercise every faculty of the mind--reason, memory, imagination; and though we cannot put our fossils to the question, it is something to be so aroused as to be made to put the questions to one's self."--Hugh Miller. The fish-lizards, described in our last chapter, were not the only predaceous monsters that haunted the seas of the great Mesozoic age, or era. We must now say a few words about certain contemporary creatures that shared with them the spoils of those old seas, so teeming with life. And first among these--as being more fully known--come the long-necked sea-lizards, or Plesiosaurs.