XXI.—Notice on the Megalosaurus or great Fossil Lizard of Stonesfield.

Abstract

I am induced to lay before the Geological Society the annexed representations of parts of the skeleton of an enormous fossil animal, found at Stones-field near Woodstock, about twelve miles to the N. W. of Oxford; in the hope that, imperfect as are the present materials, their communication to the public may induce those who possess other parts of the same reptile, to trans­mit to the Society such further information as may lead to a more complete elucidation of its osteology. The specimens here engraved are all preserved in the Oxford Museum. Nothing approaching to an entire skeleton has yet been found, nor have any two bones been discovered in actual apposition, excepting the vertebrae en­graved at Pl. XLII., and a similar series of equal magnitude presented to the Geological Society by Henry Warburton, Esq. The detached bones here represented must have belonged to several individuals of various ages and sizes; there are others in the Oxford Museum which are derived from a very young animal; in the same stratum with them there occur also fragments of large bones, of similar structure, which have been rolled to the state of pebbles. Although the known parts of the skeleton are at present very limited, they are yet sufficient to determine the place of the animal in the zoological system. Whilst the vertebral column and extremities much resemble those of quadrupeds, the teeth show the creature to have been oviparous, and to have belonged to the order of Saurians or Lizards. The