Geology . THE JURASSIC PERIOD. 87 tail near its extremity for the support of a remarkable caudal fin, inthe long snout, set with teeth adapted to seize and hold slipping prey,. 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, a
Geology . THE JURASSIC PERIOD. 87 tail near its extremity for the support of a remarkable caudal fin, inthe long snout, set with teeth adapted to seize and hold slipping prey,. 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
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