The treasury of natural history, or, A popular dictionary of zoology / by Samuel Maunder.
- Maunder, Samuel, 1785-1849.
- Date:
- 1870
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The treasury of natural history, or, A popular dictionary of zoology / by Samuel Maunder. Source: Wellcome Collection.
797/856 (page 775)
![of the new red sandstone formation in Che- shire, Warwickshire, and Lancashire, the ! impressions made by the feet ot these large Batrachians can be distinctly seen and traced I consecutively. These lootsteps are partly I concave and* partly in relief, according as they are on the upper or under surface of the sandstone strata; the impressions in relief are only found on the lower surfaces, and are solid casts of the impressions made on the soft clay by the feet, toes, and claws of the reptiles as they crawled along. It was a considerable time before any remains of bones were found, to justify the naturalists in pronouncing on the cause of these im- pressions. Dr. Kaup suggested that they were the footmarks of a marsupial animal ; he named it Cheirotherium, and some geolo- gists were even fanciful enough to imagine that they were the remains of branched sea- I weeds. It is now ascertained, from various I remains of bones and teeth associated with them, that they were formed by huge Batra- I chians, to which Professor Owen has applied the name of Labyrinthodon, in allusion to the peculiar structure of the teeth, the substances ' composing them being blended together in a very complex labyrinthio manner. The learned Hunterian Professor has shown that the skull of this reptile is attached to the neck-bones by two joints, and that the teeth are situated both on the proper jaw-bones, and on the bone of the roof of the mouth called “vomer; characters found at the present day only in the frogs and sala- manders. The hind foot, as in the frog and toad, was much larger than the fore loot, although they are nearly similar in form. Mr. Waterhouse lluwkins, following the in- dications of Professor Owen, has built up, on one of the islands in the grounds of the Crystal Palace, a highly graphic restoration ot one of the two species of this remarkable genus. It will be thus easily perceived by any eye, how the large footsteps impressed in ! the sandstone were formed bv animals walk- j mg on the iund, and air-breathers, resembling I in most points, except in bulk, the batruchiau | reptiles at present existing on the globe. LEIODON ANCEPS. The names given by Professor Owen to a murine Lizard, whose I fossil -keletul remains have been found in II the chalk of Norfolk. It was closely allied | to the great Aluaasaurus [which see below]. LEPTOPLLUKON. [See Teleiipeton.] I A reptile found in a fossil state in the old II red sandstone. j I LITHORNIS. The name given by Pro- I fessor Owen to the fossil remains of a bird 1 preserved in the Hunterian collection. Al- i though the remains of mammalia are abun- 1 dunl in the fresh-water deposits, and in the marine drift of the newer pliocene period, I the traces of the existence of birds are very seldom rnet with. Professor Owen eusily accounts for this; he suys, that “the light bodies of birds float along on the surface after death ; and for one bird that becomes imbedded in the sediment ut the bottom, perhaps ninety-nine are devoured before de- composition has sufficiently advanced to ] allow the skeleton to sink. The remains of the Lithornis were found in the London clay of Sheppey, that fertile tource of supply to the cabinets of collectors. The professor believes, and has given the reasons lor his reference, that the remains belong to some species of the vulture family, a. family of birds now restricted to the warmer parts of the earth. The fossil fruits described in the work of Mr. Bowerbank, and collected by that able naturalist on the Isle of Sheppey, are mostly referred to families of plants which now inhabit the more tropical portions of the globe ; so that the animal and vegetable remains found in a fossil state on this interesting spot seem clearly to show that at the time they were alive, a warmer temperature prevailed. LOPHIODON. A generic title proposed by Baron Cuvier to indicate an extinct her- bivorous quadruped, whose fossil remains were discovered nt the beginning of the pre- sent century in the tertiary beds near Issel in Languedoc. The Lophiodon wus closely allied to our existing Tapirs and Rhinoceroses, as shown by its dental peculiarities, and also still more so to the extinct Pakeottierium [w hich see at p. 485]. MACHAIRODUS a sword; °tfov, a tooth). A genus of carnivorous mammalia now found only in a fossil state. It derives its name from, and is chiefly characterised by, the long curved compressed cunine teeth, the crowns of which have finely serrated murgins. Remains of this quadruped have been found j in several parts ot Europe, and also in this I country. Professor Owen says, “In this islund, anterior to the deposition of the drift, there was associated with the great extinct tiger, I bear, and hyusna of the caves, iu the destruc- | tive task of controlling the numbers of the richly developed order of the herbivorous | mummalia, a feline animal us large us the , tiger, and, to judge by its instruments of I destruction, of greater ferocity. This crea- ture was the Muchairodus, which Cuvier, from the imperfect materials before him, judged to have been a beur. “ When we are in- | formed, writes Professor Owen, “ that, in some districts of India, entire villages have | been depopulated by the destructive incur- 1 sions of a single species of a large feline ani- mal, the tiger, it is scarcely conceivable that mun, in an eurly and rude condition of society, | cuuld have resisted the attacks of the more I formidable tiger, bear, and muchairodus of the cave epoch And this consideration may | lead us the more readily to receive the nega- tive evidence of the absence of well-authen- ticated humun fossil remains, and to con- , elude that man did not exist in the land which was ravaged simultaneously by three such formidable Carnivora, aided in their work of destruction by troops of savuge hynmas. There are tine specimens ol the teeth of this animul, and a cust ot its formi- dable head, in the British Museum. In the British Museum there are specimens of two species found by Dr. Falconer and Major Cautley in the tertiary deposits of the Sewa- lik Hills iu India. MACRAUCHENIA. This term has been given by Piolosor Owen to a genus ol extinct](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24864201_0797.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
