Extinct Monsters: A Popular Account of Some of the Larger Forms of Ancient Animal LifeHutchinson, H. N. (Henry Neville)
Science
Extinct Monsters: A Popular Account of Some of the Larger Forms of Ancient Animal Life
Hutchinson, H. N. (Henry Neville)
Paleontology
Dr. Buckland, in his _Bridgewater Treatise_, 1836, referred to a
limb-bone in the Oxford Museum, from the great Oolite formation near
Woodstock, which was examined by Cuvier, and pronounced to have once
belonged to a whale; also a very large rib, which seemed whale-like.
In 1838 Professor Owen, when collecting materials for his famous
_Report on the Fossil Reptiles of Great Britain_, inspected this
remarkable limb-bone, and could not match it with any bones known
among the whale tribe; and yet its structure, where exposed, was like
that of the long bone (humerus) of the paddle of a whale. Later on, he
abandoned the idea that it once belonged to a whale, and it was
thought that the extinct animal in question might have been a reptile
of the crocodilean order. In time, a fine series of limb-bones and
vertebræ was added to the Oxford Museum by Professor Phillips (Dr.
Buckland's successor at Oxford), who pronounced them to be
Dinosaurian. The name "Cetiosaurus"[11] (or Whale-lizard), originally
given by Owen, was unfortunate, because there is really nothing
whale-like about it, except a certain coarse texture of some of the
bones.
[11] Greek--_ketion_, whale; _sauros_, lizard.
In 1848 Dr. Buckland announced the discovery of another limb-bone (a
femur), which Owen referred to Cetiosaurus; it was four feet three
inches in length. Between 1868 and 1870, however, a considerable
portion of a skeleton was discovered in the same formation at
Kirtlington Station, near Oxford. These remains were the subject of
careful examination by Professors Owen and Phillips. The femur this
time was five feet four inches long. Their studies threw much light on
the nature and habits of Cetiosaurus.
Although showing in many ways an approach to the crocodile type of
reptile, yet it was perceived from the nature of the limbs that they
were better fitted for walking on land than are those of a crocodile,
with its sprawling limbs. Still, Professor Owen was careful to point
out that the vertebræ of its long tail indicate suitability as a
powerful swimming organ, and concluded that the creature was more
aquatic than terrestrial in its habits. Plaster casts of the
limb-bones may be seen at the British Museum of Natural History, side
by side with the huge Atlantosaurus cast sent by Professor Marsh.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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