[Illustration: Fig. 119.--Ramphorynchus restored. One-quarter natural
size.]
The Teleosaurus resembled the Gavials of India. The former inhabited the
banks of rivers, perhaps the sea itself; they were longer, more slender,
and more active than the living species; they were about thirty feet in
length, of which the head may be from three to four feet, with their
enormous jaws sometimes with an opening of six feet, through which they
could engulf, in the depths of their enormous throat, animals of
considerable size.
The _Teleosaurus cadomensis_ is represented on the opposite page (PLATE
XVIII.), after the sketch of M. E. Deslongchamps, carrying from the sea
in its mouth a _Geoteuthis_, a species of Calamary of the Oolitic epoch.
This creature was coated with a cuirass both on the back and belly. In
order to show this peculiarity, a living individual is represented on
the shore, and a dead one is floating on its back in shallow water,
leaving the ventral cuirass exposed.
Behind the _Teleosaurus cadomensis_ in the engraving, another Saurian,
the _Hylæosaurus_, is represented, which makes its appearance in the
Cretaceous epoch. We have here adopted the restoration which has been so
ably executed by Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins, at the Crystal Palace,
Sydenham.
Besides the numerous Fishes with which the Oolitic seas swarmed, they
contained some Crustaceans, Cirripedes, and various genera of Mollusca
and Zoophytes. _Eryon arctiformis_, represented in Fig. 119, belongs to
the class of Crustaceans, of which the spiny lobster is the type. Among
the Mollusca were some Ammonites, Belemnites, and Oysters, of which many
hundred species have been described. Of these we may mention _Ammonites
refractus, A. Jason and A. cordatus, Ostrea dilatata, Terebratula
diphya, Diceras arietena, Belemnites hastatus_, and _B. Puzosianus_. In
some of the finely-laminated clays the Ammonites are very perfect, but
somewhat compressed, with the outer lip or margin of the aperture entire
(Fig. 120). Similar prolongations have been noticed in Belemnites found
by Dr. Mantell in the Oxford Clay, near Chippenham.
[Illustration: Fig. 120.--Eryon arctiformis.]
[Illustration: Fig. 121.--Perfect Ammonite.]
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