. The testimony of the rocks; . PTERODACTYLUS CRASSIROSTRIS. (Oolite.) middle ages, and that to the j:iws and teeth of ^the croco-dile added the wings of a hat and the body and tail of an HI ST 011Y OF ANIMALS. 109 ordinary mammal, had the power of the air, and, pur-suing the fleetest insects in their flight, captured and borethem doTVTi; * its lakes and rivers abounded in crocodilesand fresh water tortoises of ancient type and flishion ; andits woods and plains were the haunts of a strange reptilianfauna of what has been well termed fearfully great lizards,^- some of which, such as the iguano
. The testimony of the rocks; . PTERODACTYLUS CRASSIROSTRIS. (Oolite.) middle ages, and that to the j:iws and teeth of ^the croco-dile added the wings of a hat and the body and tail of an HI ST 011Y OF ANIMALS. 109 ordinary mammal, had the power of the air, and, pur-suing the fleetest insects in their flight, captured and borethem doTVTi; * its lakes and rivers abounded in crocodilesand fresh water tortoises of ancient type and flishion ; andits woods and plains were the haunts of a strange reptilianfauna of what has been well termed fearfully great lizards,^- some of which, such as the iguanodon, rivalled the largest^jelephant in height, and greatly more than rivalled him inlength and bulk. Judging from what remams, it-seems notimprobable that the reptiles of this Oolitic period were Fig. CHELONIA BENSTEDI. (Chalk.) quite as numerous individually, and consisted of well nighas many genera and si)ecies, as all the mammals of the * Some of these dragons of the Secondary ages -were of very consider-able size. The wings of a Pterodactyle of the Chalk, in the possession ofMr. Bowcrbank, must hare had a spread of about eighteen feet; those ofa recently discovered Pterodactyle of the Grccnsand, a spread of not lessthan twenty-seven feet. The Lammcr-gcyer of the Alps has an extent ofwing of but from ten to eleven feet; while that of the great Condor of theAndes, the largest of flying birds, docs not exceed twelve ]:o THE PAL^ONTOLOGICAL present time. In the cretaceous ages, the class, thoughstill the dominant one, is visibly reduced in its standing; ithad reached its culmmating point in the Oolite, and thenbegan to decHne; and with the first dawn of the Tertiary-division we find it occupying, as now, a very subordinateplace in creation. Curiously enough, it is not until
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