Monograph on the Reptilia of the Kimmeridge Clay and Portland Stone

The discovery of marine reptiles in the Jurassic rocks of central and southern England helped spark a revolution in the earth sciences, opening new vistas on deep time and revealing a variety of animals whose bizarre appearances kick-started long-standing public fascination with extinct life. Sir Richard Owen (1804–92) was at the forefront of this work and described many new species of ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs and mosasaurs. In this monograph on the Reptilia from the Kimmeridge Clay and Portland Stone (originally published in 1861–9 and gathered together in 1889) Owen concentrated on the 'pliosaurs' from those units - large-bodied marine reptiles with huge heads, short necks and flippers - and showed that dinosaurs were not the only extinct reptile group to produce formidable predators. These formations have yielded abundant 'pliosaur' material, and Owen's monograph, reissued here with his 1870 study of cetacea from the Red Crag Formation, has remained the foundation for all subsequent work on these animals.