First issue of Nature
Nov 4, 1869
Triassic Dinosauria
T. H. Huxley
IT will probably interest geologists and palaeontologists to know that a recent examination of the numerous remains of Thecodontosauria in the Brisol Museum, enables me to demonstrate that these Triassic reptiles belong to the order Dinosauria, and are closely allied to Megalosaurus. The vertebrae, humerus, and ilium, found in the Warwickshire Trias, which have been ascribed to Labyrinthodon, also belong to Dinosauria. The two skeletons obtained in the German Trias near Stuttgart, and described by Prof. Plieninyer, Some years ago, are also unquestionable Dinosauria; and, as Von Meyer is of opinion, probably belong to the genus Teratosaurus, from the same beds. Von Meyer's Plataeosaurus, from the German Trias, is, plainly, as he has indicated it to be, a Dinosaurian.
As Prof. Cope has suggested, it is very probable that Bathygnathus, from the Triassic beds of Prince Edward's Island, is a Dinosaurian; and I have no hesitation in expressing the belief, that the Deuterosaurus, from the Ural, which occurs in beds which are called Permian, but which appear to be Triassic, is also a Dinosaurian. It is also very probable that Rhopalodon, which occurs in these rocks, belongs to the same order. If so, the close resemblance of the South African Galesaurus to Rhopalodon, would lead me to expect the former to prove a Dinosaur.
I have found an indubitable fragment of a Dinosaurian among some fossils, not long ago sent to me, from the reptiliferous beds of Central India, by Dr. Oldham, the Director of the Indian Geological Survey. Further, the determination of the Thecodonts as Dinosauria, leaves hardly any doubt that the little Ankistrodon from these Indian rocks, long since described by me, belongs to the same group.
But another discovery in the same batch of fossils from India, leaves no question on my mind that the Fauna of the beds which yield Labyrinthodonts and Dicynodonts in that country, represents the terrestrial Fauna of the Trias of Europe. I find, in fact, numerous fragments of the crocodilian reptile, so closely allied to the Belodon of the German Trias, that the determination of the points of difference requires close attention, associated with a Hypcrodapedon, larger than those discovered in the Elgin Sandstones, but otherwise very similar to it.
Thus, during the Triassic epoch, extensive dry land seems to have existed in North America, Western and Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Central India, and South Africa, as it does now; and, throughout this vast area, the Dinosauria — the links between reptiles and birds — seem to have been represented by not fewer, probably by many more, than nine or ten distinct genera.
I hope, shortly, to have the honour of placing the details of the researches into the structure and distribution of the Dinosauria, in which I have been engaged for the last two years, and of which the above notice is one of the results, before the Geological Society.
