Megalosaurus

“ The restoration of the animal has been accordingly effected, agreeably with the proportions of the known parts of the skeleton, and in harmony with the general characters of the order of reptiles to which the Megalosaurus belonged. This order—the Dinosauria (Gr. deinos, terribly great sauros, a lizard) —is that to which the two foregoing huge reptiles of the Wealden series belong, viz., the Iguanodon and Hylæosaurus, and is characterised by the modifications already mentioned, that fitted them for more efficient progression upon dry land. ”

“ The further evidence as to the ornithic affinities of the Dinosauria which I have to bring forward in the present paper consists, first, in the structure of the pelvis, as shown by Megalosaurus, Iguanodon, and Hypsilophodon, and, secondly, in that of the distal end of the tibia and of the astragalus, as evidenced by Poikilopleuron, Megalosaurus, and Lælaps.
If the pelvis of any existing reptile be compared with that of any existing bird, the following points of difference will be observed:—
1. In the Reptile the ilium is not prolonged in front of the acetabulum ”

“ Considering that three sets of Thecodontosaurian teeth have been found for only a solitary Palæosaurian tooth, the probabilities would seem to be in favour of the bones belonging to Thecodontosaurus. But, on the other hand, the teeth of Thecodontosaurus are Scelidosaurian in character; and it seems to be hardly likely that these teeth should have accompanied hind limbs which are the reverse of Scelidosaurian, and exaggerate the peculiarities of those of Megalosaurus, when we have, in Palæosaurus, a tooth so like that of Megalosaurus that it is only distinguishable by critical examination. ”

“ The towering growths swayed as though shaken by a strong wind.
Suddenly the fungi parted, and a hideous head was thrust forth, at sight of which Silas and the baronet involuntarily sprang backward. At the same instant a terrified cry burst from the scientist:
“Great Heaven! Megalosaurus!”
CHAPTER XXIII. MUSWANI—MONSTER-FIGHTER. AY, Megalosaurus! One of the most terrible of the monstrous reptiles which roamed the prehistoric forests of our globe. Often had Mervyn described this fearful brute in his lectures on the subject ”

“ The remains of the Ichthyosauri and Plesiosauri occur chiefly in the Liassic group, but the more recent Cretaceous (Wealden) formation is distinguished by the presence of still more enormous land saurians. On their massive legs and unwieldy feet these monsters stood much higher than any reptile of our days, and resembled in bulk and stature the elephants of the present world.
The carnivorous Megalosaurus (for its sharply serrated teeth indicate this mode of life) appears to have preceded the gigantic Iguanodon, whose dentition denotes a vegetable food. ”

“ The specimens upon which the latter genus [Deinodon] is based, consist of fragments of about a dozen teeth, of which three-fourths [types of Deinodon] are nearly identical in form with those of Megalosaurus, while the others [types of Aublysodon] are more or less peculiar. The uniformity in shape of the teeth of Megalosaurus would appear to indicate that the three-fourths of the specimens alluded to, belonged to, at most, another species of the same genus [Deinodon] , while the remaining specimens would typify a distinct genus [Aublysodon] . ”

“ The Megalosaurus was first described by Cuvier, and the family determined; he calculated the dimensions of the animal at from forty to fifty feet in length. Professor Owen, from better preserved specimens, has reduced it to thirty feet long: the head is five feet, the length of trunk with sacrum thirteen feet, and the tail about the same, allowing the Megalosaur to have had the same number of caudal vertebræ as the crocodile. The sacrum consisted of five anchylosed vertebræ, new in saurian anatomy: the hind-legs measure two yards, a metatarsal bone thirteen inches ”

“ The Dinosauria, a group of extinct reptiles, containing the genera Iguanodon, Hadrosaurus, Megalosaurus, Poikilopleuron, Scelidosaurus, Plateosaurus, &c., which occur throughout the whole series of the Mesozoic rocks, and are for the most part of gigantic size, appear to me to furnish the required conditions. ”

“ Of this tribe there are three well established genera—the Megalosaurus, the Hylæosaurus, and the Iguanodon. These were the gigantic crocodile lizards of the dry land, whose peculiarities of osteological structure distinguish them as clearly from the modern terrestrial and amphibious sauria, as the opposite modifications for an aquatic life, characterize the extinct enaliosauria, or marine lizards. The Dinosaurians belong properly to the Wealden fresh water formations, which may be regarded as the true habitat of this order of terrestrial fossil reptiles. ”

“ Top view. (After Marsh.)
The teeth of this horned Dinosaur resemble those of the Megalosaur. Its eyes were protected by protuberances of the skull just above the cavity in which the eye was placed (see Figs. 17 and 18) . The brain was a good deal larger in proportion to the size of the animal than in Brontosaurus and its allies; so perhaps we may infer that it was endowed with greater intelligence, as it certainly was more active in its habits. The fore limbs, as in Megalosaurus, [85] were small, and some of the fingers ended in powerful claws, which no doubt it used to good purpose. ”

“ However strange it may appear to find its dimensions so much exceeding those of any existing Lizards, or to find marine genera in the order of Saurians, in which there exists at this time no species capable of living in the sea; it is scarcely less strange than the analogous deviations in the Megalosaurus and Iguanodon, which afford examples of still greater expansion of the type of the Monitor and Iguana, into colossal forms adapted to move upon the land. ”

“ The Megalosaurus, a saurian twenty-five yards long, was a more alarming figure in our country-sides than the Grey Lizard of the walls. One of man’s contemporaries, that monumental beast the Mammoth, is known only by his remains ”

“ Another very remarkable genus of reptiles, the remains of which, although they are also found beyond the limits of the lias concretion, are especially abundant in the oolite and upper sands, is the megalosaurus, justly so named, for, along with the forms of the lizards, and particularly of the monitors, of which it has also the sharp-edged and dentated teeth, it presents so enormous a size, that if we suppose it to have possessed the proportions of the monitors, it must have exceeded seventy feet in length. ”

“ Its head was short, its jaws enormous, furnished with teeth of a very elaborate structure, and on its muzzle it carried a curved horn. Such a beast as this might well have caused all that destruction of life on the part of his desperate assailants of which More speaks.
"Then there was another animal," continued the doctor, who was evidently discoursing upon a favorite topic. "It was the one that came suddenly upon More while he was resting with Almah after his flight with the run-away bird. That I take to be the Megalosaurus. This animal was a monster of tremendous size and strength. ”

“ Even in point of etymological appropriateness, the term "Dinosauria" is no more fitting for reptiles of which some are small, than "Pachypoda" is for reptiles of which some have slender feet; but as Von Meyer's name has never obtained much currency, it may be well to allow justice to give way to expediency, and to retain the name of Dinosauria for those reptiles which agree in all the most important and characteristic parts of their structure with Megalosaurus and Iguanodon. ”

“ Two of these teeth (Pl. III. fig. 4) are so similar to those of Palæosaurus cylindrodon in form, and even in colour, that I conceive them to belong to the same genus, and perhaps to the same species, although they are twice as large as the teeth from Bristol. They show most distinctly the abrupt cessation of the anterior serrated ridge about halfway down the crown, which beneath this point is rounded and curved as in Megalosaurus. I see no reason to doubt that these are Dinosaurian teeth. Of the other tooth, only the crown, which is 1⋅8 inch long, is preserved (Pl. III. fig. 11) . ”

“ Mantell, constitute an upper member of the Tunbridge Wells Sand, while the “sand-rock” of the Hastings cliffs, about 100 feet thick, is one of the lower members of the same. The reptiles, which are very abundant in this division, consist partly of saurians, referred by Owen and Mantell to eight genera, among which, besides those already enumerated, we find the Megalosaurus and Plesiosaurus. The Pterodactyl also, a flying reptile, is met with in the same strata, and many remains of Chelonians of the genera Trionyx and Emys, now confined to tropical regions. ”

“ Most species are harmless, though a few are said to be venomous, and, because of them, all are dreaded. They differ much in appearance, some being really beautiful, and others about as hideous as reptiles can be. There are an immense number and variety of lizards, having some distinctive characteristics. Several extinct species, as the Iguanadon, [4] Megalosaurus, [5] Plesiosaurus, [6] and Ichthyosaurus, [7] are known only by their gigantic fossils, casts of which may be seen in many of our college museums.
Order III.—Chelonia. [8] This name is derived from the Greek word for tortoise. ”

“ Mantell, the enthusiastic geologist to whose labours palæontologists are greatly indebted, had previously discovered similar teeth and bones in the Wealden strata of Tilgate Forest. Sherborne, in Dorset, is another locality which has yielded a fine specimen of parts of both jaws with teeth. A cast of this may be seen in the geological collection at South Kensington. It was found in the Inferior Oolite (Wall-case IV.) ; the original specimen lies in the museum of Sherborne College. Remains of Megalosaurus have also been found at the following places: Lyme-Regis and Watchet (in the Lias) ”

“ They had a kind of grand, mammoth civilization, gloomy and goblin. They seem to have floundered up out of Nile mud, like that old, slimy, pre-Adamite brood, the what's-their-name—megalosaurus, ichthyosaurus, pterodactyle, iguanodon, and other misshapen abominations, with now and then wreaths of lotus and water lilies round their tusks.
The human face, as represented in Assyrian sculptures, is a higher type of face than even the Greek: it is noble and princely; the Egyptian faces are broad, flat, and clumsy. ”

“ Length nearly 60 feet.
[69]
The body of the Brontosaur was comparatively short, with a fairly large paunch (see restoration, Plate IV.) . The legs and feet were strong and massive, and the limb-bones solid. As if partly in order to balance the neck, we find a long and powerful tail, in which the vertebræ are nearly all solid. In most Dinosaurs the fore limbs are small compared to the hind limbs—e.g. Megalosaurus, Iguanodon, and Scelidosaurus,—but here we find them unusually large. ”

“ It passed away, and was replaced by the Mesozoic, emphatically the reign of reptiles, when animals of that type attained to colossal magnitude, to variety of function and structure, to diversity of habitat in sea and on land, altogether unexampled in their degraded descendants of modern times. Sea-lizards of gigantic size swarmed everywhere in the waters. On land, huge quadrupeds, like Atlantosaurus and Iguanodon and Megalosaurus, greatly exceeded the elephants of later times; while winged reptiles—some of them of small size, others with wings twenty feet in expanse—flitted in the air. ”

“ In its habits it was, probably, a marsh-loving or river-side animal, dwelling amidst filicene, cycadaceous, and coniferous shrubs and trees full of insects and small mammalia. The one small and imperfect tooth which has been found resembles that of Iguanodon more than of any other reptile; and it seems probable that the Ceteosaurus was nourished by vegetable food, which abounded in the vicinity of its haunts, and was not obliged to contend with the Megalosaurus for a scanty supply of more stimulating diet. [69]
Fig. 119.—Ramphorynchus restored. One-quarter natural size. ”

“ MANUS (Lat. the hand) . The hand of the higher Vertebrates.
MARSIPOBRANCHII (Gr. marsipos, a pouch; bragchia, gill) . The order of Fishes comprising the Hag-fishes and Lampreys, with pouch-like gills.
MARSUPIALIA (Lat. marsupium, a pouch) . An order of Mammals in which the females mostly have an abdominal pouch in which the young are carried.
MASTODON (Gr. mastos, nipple; odous, tooth) . An extinct genus of Elephantine Mammals.
MEGALONYX (Gr. megas, great; onux, nail) . An extinct genus of Edentate Mammals.
MEGALOSAURUS (Gr. megas, great; saura, lizard) . A genus of Deinosaurian Reptiles. ”

“ Vid. also Allosaurus, Atlantosaurus, Brontosaurus, Ceratosaurus, Cetiosaurus, Compsognathus, Diplodocus, Hadrosaurus, Hoplosaurus, Hylæosaurus, Iguanodon, Megalosaurus, Morosaurus, Ornithopsis, Pelorosaurus, Polacanthus, Scelidosaurus, Triceratops. ”

“ I have already examined them, and have drawn the best, which consisted of almost entire limb-bones and of vertebræ.
"The discovery is extremely interesting. The bones belong to a gigantic Saurian, which, in virtue of the mass and hollowness of its limb-bones, is allied to Iguanodon and to Megalosaurus, and will belong to the second division of my Saurian system. None of its allies has hitherto been found so deep in the European continent, nor from rocks of so great age. These remains belong to a new genus, wbich I term Plateosaurus; tbe species is Pl. ”

“ Middle Eocene. Crocodiles, Chelonians, Serpents.
Horsham, Sussex. Wealden; quarries in the vicinity. Hylæosaurus, Iguanodon, Goniopholis, Turtles, &c.
Ilminster. Upper Lias. Ichthyosaurus, Teleosaurus.
Kyson, Suffolk. Eocene. Serpent, Lizard.
Leamington. New Red. Labyrinthodon.
Lewes. Chalk. Vertebra; of Mosasaurus or Leiodon.
Lyme Regis. Lias. Pterodactyles, Ichthyosauri, and Plesiosauri in abundance.
Maidstone. Lower Green Sand; quarries near the town; particularly Mr. Bensted’s "Iguanodon quarry." Iguanodon, Plesiosaurus, Polyptychodon, Fresh-water Tortoise.
Malton. Oolite. Megalosaurus. ”