similarly disposed in strata of many miles in extent, and mixed so abundantly with teeth and rolled fragments of the bones of reptiles and fishes, as to show that this region, having been the bottom of an ancient sea, was for a long period the receptacle of the bones and fœcal remains of its inhabitants. The occurrence of Coprolites is not, however, peculiar to the places just mentioned; they are found in greater or less abundance throughout the lias of England; they occur also in strata, of all ages that contain the remains of carnivorous reptiles, and have been recognised in many and distant regions both of Europe and America.[1]
The certainty of the origin of these Coprolites is established by their frequent presence in the abdominal region of fossil skeletons of Ichthyosauri found in the lias of Lyme Regis. One of the most remarkable of these is represented in Pl. 13; the coprolitic matter loaded with fish-scales, within the ribs of these and similar specimens, is identical in appearance and chemical composition with the insulated coprolites that occur in the same strata with the skeletons.[2]
- ↑ Professor Jæger has recently discovered many Coprolites in the alum slate of Gaildorf in Wirtemberg; a formation which he considers to be in the lower region of that part of the new red sandstone formation which in Germany is called Keuper; and which contains the remains of two species of Saurians.
In the United States Dr. Dekay has also discovered Coprolites in the Green-sand formation of Monmouth, in New Jersey, see Pl. 15, Pig. 13.
- ↑ This specimen has been presented by Viscount Cole to the Geological Collection of the University of Oxford. It affords decisive proof that the substances in question cannot be referred to adventitious matter, placed accidentally in contact with the fossil body, inasmuch as the large coprolitic mass is enclosed between the back bone and the right and left series of ribs, of which the greater number remain nearly in their natural position. The quantity of this coprolite is prodigious, when compared with the size of the animal in which it occurs; and if we were not acquainted with the powers of the digestive organs of reptiles and fishes and their capacity of gorging the larger animals that form their prey; the great space within these fossil skeletons of Ichthyosauri, which is occasionally filled with coprolitic matter, would appear inexplicable.
