PLESIOSAURIAN GENUS AND SPECIES.
This moil extrooviimory foiiil organic remain was ilrit annonnceci by tho Rev. W. D. Conybeare.
The l™ in the neighbonrbood of Bristol having yieWed him some saurian bones, those of the
Plesiosaurus, from near to, and a lisard, wore detected amongst thorn.
Shortly after this my very respected friend Mr. Clarke, Jun. of Stieot. eansed a piece of a head,
whieh he had found upon his fathers estate in that village, to be submitted to the criticai inspection of
Mr. Conybeare.
With these imperfect but important materials and by the assist,anoo of some fragments which were
found in tho late Col. Bitch's eolleelion, the Rev. W. D. Conybeare constrnetcd an imaginary skeleton
which, with tho o.xeeption ol the neck, the vaiflcngth ot whieh could not be thought of, w.ai exceedingly
like tlie true one soon after found.
The Rev. W. D. Conybeare having thus excited tho attention of geologists to this novel subjeet, they
had soon an opportunity of congratulating him upon the happy penetration by wliich ho had elaborated
so many facta relating to this fossil organic wonder. For in J.nunry, 1824, Mias Mary Anning, to the
due expression ot whose public and pri.nte worth all language is insulEeient, diseoverod a mo.Kplendid
Plesiosaurus in the lias shale a t Lyme-Regis: to the delight ol tl.e learned ascertained the most
paradoxicai animal ever known.
This superb fossil having I id by tho Duke of Buckingham, with that condescending
5 placed at tlio command of the “ Geologic,\l Society o liberality which distinguishes his Grace, \
Loxnox,” and Mr. Conjhc.ve had the satisfaction of publishing in the " T .,« sact,o.„ '' the eonlirma'tiK
wiiicli it afforded him of many of his truly enlightened iileas,
Cuvier, assisted by the generous attentions of Mr. Conybeare, applied his giant mind to a description
of “ this inhabitant of the ancient world perhaps the most lietcrogencous and that of all tliat appears to
merit most the name of monster." To the luminous paper which the talented founder of this genus liad
given the admiring world, he added a feiv particular which some specimens from Honfleur and tlie
Interior of Franco acquainted him with.
As ail the elucidation ivhich deep research and stupendous talent could abstract fiom the subjects
of his enquiry was of course embodied in the chapters devoted to it at the end of the fifth volume of his
“ Ossemens F ossiles," no individual has been able to add new facts. But now the acquisition of an
entirely perfect skeleton in proprui sitii of the Plesiosaurus and several highly interesting fragments,
allow me to determine tlic species and to detail the osteology of one of them with an accuracy that can
bo subject to no objection.