File:Image from page 111 of "Water reptiles of the past and present" (1914) (14586359859).jpg

Identifier: waterreptilesofp1914will Title: Water reptiles of the past and present Year: 1914 (1910s) Authors: Williston, Samuel Wendell, 1851-1918 Subjects: Aquatic reptiles Publisher: Chicago, Ill., The University of Chicago Press Contributing Library: Boston Public Library Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Public Library

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Text Appearing Before Image: fii\\!\m 1 Fig. 48.—Legs of Lariosaurus bal-sami, an Upper Triassic nothosaur: h,humerus; r, radius; u, ulna; i, inter-medium; ue, ulnare; /, femur; fi,fibula; t, tibia; a, astragalus; c, cal-caneum. (After Abel.) ioo WATER REPTILES OF THE PAST AND PRESENT

Text Appearing After Image: Fig. 49.—Lariosanrus balsami SAUROPTERYGIA 101 go back to their earlier condition. The nothosaurs do provebeyond all possibility of doubt that the plesiosaurs were at leastthe descendants of animals closely allied to them, so closely, indeed,that it is doubtful whether we could distinguish external differenceswere all of them actually living at the present time. We have repeatedly seen that all aquatic animals have someor all the bones of the limbs shortened, and it is of interest toobserve that the early plesiosaurs had longer forearm and forelegbones than the later ones, just as we have seen was the case with theearly ichthyosaurs. It would seem probable that all the earlyplesiosaurs had long necks, though some of the late ones in Cre-taceous times had relatively short necks, shorter even than theknown nothosaurs possessed. The nothosaurs doubtless lived about the shores of the ancientseas, spending much of their time in the water, leaving it perhapswhen hard pressed by their enem

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