The large animal, whose fossil remains are found in the quarries of
Maestricht, has been deservedly a frequent object of admiration; and the
beautiful appearance which its remains possess, in consequence of their
excellent state of preservation, in a matrix which admits of their fair
display, has occasioned every specimen of this fossil to be highly
valued. The lower jaw of this animal, and some other specimens, which
were presented by Dr. Peter Camper to the Royal Society, and which are
now in the British museum, are among the most splendid and interesting
fossils in existence. In 1770, the workmen having discovered part of an
enormous head of an animal imbedded in the solid stone, in one of the
subterraneous passages of the mountain, gave information to M. Hoffman,
who, with the most zealous assiduity, labored until he had disengaged
this astonishing fossil from its matrix. But when this was done, the
fruits of his labors were wrested from him by an ecclesiastic, who
claimed it as being proprietor of the land over the spot on which it was
found. Hoffman defended his right in a court of justice; but through the
influence employed against him, he was doomed not only to the loss of
this inestimable fossil, but to the payment of heavy law expenses. But
in time, justice, though tardy, at last arrived; the troops of the
French republic secured this treasure, which was conveyed to the
national museum.
The length of the cervical, dorsal and lumbar vertebrae, appears to have
been about nine feet five inches, and that of the vertebræ of the tail
about ten foot; adding to which the length of the head, which may be
reckoned, considering the loss of the intermaxillary bones, at least at
four feet, we may safely conclude the whole length of the skeleton of
the animal to have approached very nearly to twenty-four feet. The head
is a sixth of the whole length of the animal; a proportion approaching
very near to that of the crocodile, but differing much from that of the
monitor, the head of which animal forms hardly a twelfth part of the
whole length. The tail must have been very strong, and its width, at its
extremity, must have rendered it a most powerful oar, and have enabled
the animal to have opposed the most agitated waters, as has been well
remarked by naturalists who have examined it. From this circumstance,
and from the other remains which accompany those of this animal, there
can be no doubt of its having been an inhabitant of the ocean. Taking
all these circumstances into consideration, M. Cuvier concludes, and
certainly on fair, if not indisputable grounds, that this animal must
have formed an intermediate genus between those animals of the lizard
tribe which have an extensive and forked tongue, which include the
monitors and the common lizards, and those which have a short tongue and
the palate armed with teeth, which comprise the iguanas, marbres, and
anolis. This genus, he thinks, could only have been allied to the
crocodile by the general characters of the lizards.