Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 26.djvu/296

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nature and affinities with, the Dinosauria, as based upon certain parts of the skeleton, especially the " caudal vertebrae, chevron bones, ilium, and tibia" *. These two genera are assigned by Prof. Huxley to two distinct families, the Megalosauridae and Scelidosauridae — Paloeosaurus being placed with the Megalosauroid, and Thecodontosaurus with the Scelidosauroid type.

Their remains were found in a mass of dolomitic conglomerate on the eastern side of Durdham Down, near Clifton, Bristol. The whole being in a very fragmentary state, as might be anticipated from the nature of the matrix in which they were entombed, the most extreme care was bestowed both upon the removal of the dismembered fragments and their subsequent development, as now exhibited in the Museum of the Bristol Philosophical Institution.

The spot where these remains were found is no longer recognizable or determinable, having been many years ago quarried away, and the site built upon. Fortunately, however, we have records of the exact position ; and many years since, W. Sanders, Esq., F.R.S., of Clifton, during a careful geological survey of the city of Bristol and its suburbs, undertaken for the Inspectors of the General Board of Health, most accurately determined the site of the reptilian quarry on the eastern side of Durdham Down (figs. 4 & 5).

Fig. 4. — /Section from the city of Bristol to the Reptilian Quarry on Durdham Down, 320 feet above mean sea-level, showing the position of the Conglomerate upon the Coal-measures, Millstone Grit, and Carboniferous Limestone, and the Lias resting on the New Red Marls and Sandstone.

Fig. 5. — Section from the city of Bristol, across Brandon Hill, 260 feet above the sea, to the Reptilian Quarry, 320 feet, on Durdham Down in the Carboniferous Limestone.

  • Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxvi. pp. 42-45.