Elements of geology, or, The ancient changes of the earth and its inhabitants as illustrated by geological monuments / by Sir Charles Lyell.

  • Lyell, Charles, Sir, 1797-1875.
Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Elements of geology, or, The ancient changes of the earth and its inhabitants as illustrated by geological monuments / by Sir Charles Lyell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

    529/822 (page 507)
    confirming the conclusion derived from the footprints, that the quadrupeds belonged to air-breathers, and not to aquatic races. In 1852 the first osseous remains of a reptile were obtained from the coal-measures of America by Dr. Dawson and myself. We de- tected them in the interior of one of the erect Sigillariae before al- luded to as of such frequent occurrence in Nova Scotia. The tree was about 2 feet in diameter, and consisted, as usual, of an external cylinder of bark, converted into coal, and an internal stony axis of black sandstone, or rather mud and sand stained black by carbon- aceous matter, and cemented together with fragments of wood into a rock. These fragments were in the state of charcoal, and seem to have fallen to the bottom of the hollow tree while it was rotting away. The skull, jaws, and vertebra; of a reptile, probably about 2i feet in length (Dendrerpeton Acadianum, Owen), were scattered through this stony matrix. The shell, also, of a Pupa (see fig. 561. p. 508.), the first land-shell ever met with in the coal or in beds older than the tertiary, was observed in the same stony mass. Dr. Wyman of Boston pronounced the reptile to be allied in structure to Metiobranchus and Menopoma, species of batrachians, now in- habiting the North American rivers. The same view was after- wards confirmed by Professor Owen, who also pointed out the resemblance of the cranial plants to those seen in the skull of Archegosaurus and Labyrinthodon* Whether the creature had crept into the hollow tree while its top was still open to the air, or whether it was washed in with mud during a flood, or in whatever other manner it entered, must be matter of conjecture. Footprints of two reptiles of different sizes had previously been observed by Dr. Harding and Dr. Gesner on ripple-marked flags of the lower coal-measures in Nova Scotia, evidently made by quadru- peds walking on the ancient beach, or out of the water, just as the recent Menopoma is sometimes observed to do. The remains of a second and smaller species of Dendrerpeton, D. Oweni, were also found accompanying the larger one, and still re- taining some of its dermal appendages ; and in the same tree were the bones of a third small lizard-like reptile, Hylonomus Lyelli, 7 inches long, with stout hind limbs, and fore limbs comparatively slender, sup- posed by Dr. Dawson to be capable of walking and running on land.f In 1854, Prof. Owen described a “ sauroid batrachian” (Baphetes plariiceps), of the Labyriuthodon family, obtained by Dr. Dawson from the coal of Pictou in Nova Scotia. In 1859, another species of Hylonomus, twice as large as that above mentioned, was met with; and another reptile of the same family, but distinct genus, was ob- tained by Dr. Dawson, named by Owen Hylerpeton. Lastly, in 1862, Mr. Marsh discovered in the coal-measures of the South Joggins in Nova Scotia, two large caudal biconcave vertebrae, supposed at first to belong to an Enaliosor, and called Eosaurus * Geol. Quart. Journ., ;vol. ix. p. 58. f Dawson, Air-Breathers of the Coal in Nova Scotia. Montreal, 1863.