of any animals we discover in deposits preceding
or succeeding the secondary series.*
The species of fossil Saurians are so numerous,
that we can only select a few of the most
remarkable among them, for the purpose of
exemplifying the prevailing conditions of animal
life, at the periods when the dominant class of
animated beings were reptiles; attaining, in
many cases, a magnitude unknown among the
living orders of that class, and which seems to
have been peculiar to those middle ages of geological
chronology, that were intermediate between
the transition and tertiary formations.
During these ages o f reptiles, neither the carnivorous
nor lacustrine Mammalia of the tertiary
periods had begun to appear; but the most formidable
occupants, both of land and water, were
Crocodiles, and Lizards; of various forms, and
often of gigantic stature, fitted to endure the
turbulence, and continual convulsions of the
unquiet surface of our infant world.
When we see that so large and important a
range has been assigned to reptiles among the
* The oldest strata in which any reptiles have yet been found
are those connected with the magnesian-limestone formation.
(PI. 1, Sec. 16). The existence of reptiles allied to the Monitor
in the cupriferous slate and zechstein of Germany, has long been
known. In 1834, two species of reptiles, allied to the Iguana
and Monitor, were discovered in the dolomitic conglomerate, on
Durdham Down, near Bristol.
former population of our planet, we cannot but
regard with feelings of new and unusual interest,
the comparatively diminutive existing orders
of that most ancient family of quadrupeds, with
the very name of which we usually associate a
sentiment of disgust. We shall view them with
less contempt, when we learn from the records ol
geological history, that there was a time when
reptiles not only constituted the chief tenants,
and most powerful possessors of the earth, but
extended their dominion also over the waters of
the seas; and that the annals of their history
may be traced back through thousands of years,
antecedent to that latest point in the progressive
stages of animal creation, when the first parents
of the human race were called into existence.
Persons to whom this subject may now be
presented for the first time, will receive, with
much surprise, perhaps almost with incredulity,
such statements as are here advanced. It
must be admitted, that they at first seem much
more like the dreams of fiction and romance,
than the sober results of calm and deliberate
investigation ; but to those who will examine the
evidence of facts upon which our conclusions
rest, there can remain no more reasonable doubt
of the former existence of these strange and
curious creatures, in the times and places we
assign to them; than is felt by the antiquary,
who, finding the catacombs of Egypt stored