known ordinary form, which occurs in several examples, and another, in one quite young. The difference is very considerable, too great, I suppose, to he explained as a mark of age.
"There are two forms of scapula, both very large: the largest (one example) is separate from the coracoid; the others (several) are joined to the coracoid by synostosis. You will see the differences in the drawings. I am disposed to admit the larger specimens as belonging to Cetiosaurus, of which one huge femur (Cetiosaurus giganteus, Owen) was found in a deposit not much differing in age, at Gibraltar, north of Oxford.
"We have several specimens of metatarsal bones from Stonesfield—Megalosaurian no doubt. Lately there came to hand three metatarsals from the Kimmeridge clay of Swindon, which appear also to be of the same reptile. These were in apposition, cemented by a thick crust of selenitic crystals. These have now been removed, and the bones appear clear.
"It seems to me that these three bones were all that were in the metatarsus, and that the creature was tridactyle; but of course there may be reason not to trust too much to one case for proof of a negative. Still that seems to me the probable inference. As we have plenty of information about the femur, tibia (fibula?), metatarsals, and claw-bone, the reconstruction of the animal seems now practicable. But we want in this museum information as to cervical[1] and anterior dorsal vertebræ, and the central part of the sternal arrangements: of ribs we have sufficient examples, from anterior very short bicipital ribs, to very long arched widely bicipital ribs about the middle of the body, or, rather, a little before the middle. The Marsupialia do not appear to me to offer any special resemblances to any of the Megalosaurian bones. Among reptiles Crocodiles furnish the most analogous forms, among birds the Struthionidæ.
"Wishing you well through the Deinosaurians,
"Believe me, ever yours truly,
"John Phillips."
On the 7th of February, 1868, I published the chief results of the studies to which Prof. Phillips gives his benediction, in a lecture "On the Animals which are most nearly intermediate between Birds and Reptiles," delivered at the Royal Institution, and subsequently published in the 'Proceedings' of that body, and also, with the addition of sundry illustrations, in the 'Popular Science Review.' But in this lecture I drew my illustration of Dinosaurian structure almost wholly from Iguanodon. My reason for this was that Iguanodon was the only typical Dinosaurian of which the remains of the greater part of the body of a single specimen were associated together, while, at the same time, detached bones, all the peculiarities of which can be clearly made out, are numerous.
The conclusions at which I had at that time arrived are thus enunciated:—
- ↑ Professor Phillips has now (January 1870) obtained a cervial vertebra. It suggests a smaller head than was calculated from the known portion of the lower jaw.
