Geology . Fig. 362.—A Jurassic spookfish or chimaeroid, Squaloraja polyspondyla, one-fourthnatural size; from the Lower Lias, Dorsetshire. (Restored by A. Smith Wood-ward.) but not to masticate it, in the protection of the eye by bony plates,and, interestingly enough, as it would appear from cumulative evidence,in the development of a viviparous habit that freed them from thenecessity of returning to land to deposit their eggs, as do the sea-goingturtles and crocodiles. The ichthyosaurs became not a little divergent in form, habit andfood, and, in the latter part of the period, developed forms
Geology . Fig. 362.—A Jurassic spookfish or chimaeroid, Squaloraja polyspondyla, one-fourthnatural size; from the Lower Lias, Dorsetshire. (Restored by A. Smith Wood-ward.) but not to masticate it, in the protection of the eye by bony plates,and, interestingly enough, as it would appear from cumulative evidence,in the development of a viviparous habit that freed them from thenecessity of returning to land to deposit their eggs, as do the sea-goingturtles and crocodiles. The ichthyosaurs became not a little divergent in form, habit andfood, and, in the latter part of the period, developed forms (Ophthal-mosaurus, Baptanodon) in which the teeth had been greatly reducedin size; some indeed were for a long time supposed to have beenquite toothless. That their food consisted in part of invertebratesis evident from the occurrence of the remains of such animals mingled. Fig. 363.—A Jurassic forerunner of the modern Amia, Eugnathns athostomus, aboutone-seventh natural size, from the Lower Lias, Dorsetshire. (A. Smith Woodward.) with the fossil contents of the stomach, and it is not unreasonable tosuppose their food was largely formed of soft-bodied animals, per- 88 GEOLOGY. Imps the shelless cephalopoda, whose advent has been noticed. Theremains of 200 belemnites have been found in a single stomach. There
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