On Mauisaurus Gardneri (Seeley), an Elasmosaurian from the Base of the Gault at Folkestone

Abstract

T he Gault hitherto has yielded but scanty remains of animals referable to the Reptilia and to the Palæosauria; so that more than ordinary interest attaches to the discovery, in a comparatively perfect condition, of remains belonging to a genus found hitherto only in New Zealand, which may be regarded as distinctive of the deposit. The remains of this Plesiosaurian were first found, rolled and abraded, at the foot of the cliffs; much of the caudal region of the animal may therefore have disappeared by attrition, and by the gradual decay of the bones as exposed in the clay, which has partly invested them with selenite. These bones were sent by Mr. Griffith, the well-known Folkestone fossil-collector, to J. S. Gardner, Esq., F.G.S., who traced them to their place in the Cliff, about 15 or 16 feet from the base of the Gault, and undertook excavations which have resulted in the discovery of a tooth, of the vertebræ of the neck and back, the principal bones of the limbs, and portions of the pectoral arch. The head, the tail, the pelvic bones, and the smaller bones of the limbs, together with most of the ribs, have not been found; and it is possible that some of these parts of the skeleton may have become severed before the specimen was covered up in the deposit, Mr. Gardner having used all possible efforts to discover the missing remains. The neural arches appear to have been united to the centrums; and several vertebræ were