The contiguity of land may be inferred not only from these vegetable productions, but also from the teeth and bones of crocodiles and turtles, since these creatures, as Dean Conybeare remarked, must have resorted to some shore to lay their eggs. Of turtles there were numerous species referred to extinct genera. These are, for the most part, not equal in size to the largest living tropical turtles. A sea-snake, which must have been thirteen feet long, of the genus _Palæophis_ before mentioned (p. 261) has also been described by Professor Owen from Sheppey, of a different species from that of Bracklesham, and called _P. toliapicus._ A true crocodile, also, _Crocodilus toliapicus,_ and another saurian more nearly allied to the gavial, accompany the above fossils; also the relics of several birds and quadrupeds. One of these last belongs to the new genus _Hyracotherium_ of Owen, of the hog tribe, allied to Chæropotamus, another is a _Lophiodon_; a third a pachyderm called _Coryphodon eocænus_ by Owen, larger than any existing tapir. All these animals seem to have inhabited the banks of the great river which floated down the Sheppey fruits. They imply the existence of a mammiferous fauna antecedent to the period when nummulites flourished in Europe and Asia, and therefore before the Alps, Pyrenees, and other mountain-chains now forming the backbones of great continents, were raised from the deep; nay, even before a part of the constituent rocky masses now entering into the central ridges of these chains had been deposited in the sea. The marine shells of the London Clay confirm the inference derivable from the plants and reptiles in favour of a high temperature. Thus many species of _Conus_ and _ Voluta_ occur, a large _Cypræa, C. oviformis,_ a very large _Rostellaria_ (Fig. 209), a species of _Cancellaria,_ six species of _Nautilus_ (Fig. 211), besides other Cephalopoda of extinct genera, one of the most remarkable of which is the _ Belosepia_ (Fig. 212). Among many characteristic bivalve shells are _Leda amygdaloides_ (Fig. 213) and _Cryptodon angulatum_ (Fig. 214), and among the Radiata a star-fish, _Astropecten_ (Fig. 215.) Fig. 207: Voluta nodosa, Fig. 208: Phorus extensus, Fig. 209: Rostellaria (Hippocrenes) ampla, Fig. 210: Nautilus centralis, Fig. 211: Aturia ziczac, Fig. 212: Belosepia sepioidea, Fig. 213: Leda amygdaloides, Fig. 214: Cyptodon (Axinus) angulatum, Fig. 215: Astropecten crispatus. These fossils are accompanied by a sword-fish (_Tetrapterus priscus,_ Agassiz), about eight feet long, and a saw-fish (_Pristis bisulcatus,_ Agassiz), about ten feet in length; genera now foreign to the British seas. On the whole, about eighty species of fish have been described by M. Agassiz from these beds of Sheppey, and they indicate, in his opinion, a warm climate.