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_Megalosaurus_ attained gigantic dimensions, its thigh and shank
bones measuring each about three feet in length, and its total
length, including the tail, being estimated at from forty to
fifty feet. As the head of the thigh-bone is set on nearly at
right angles with the shaft, whilst all the long bones of the
skeleton are hollowed out internally for the reception of the
marrow, there can be no doubt as to the terrestrial habits of
the animal. The skull (fig. 180) was of large size, four or five
feet in length, and the jaws were armed with a series of powerful
pointed teeth. The teeth are conical in shape, but are strongly
compressed towards their summits, their lateral edges being finely
serrated. In their form and their saw-like edges, they resemble
the teeth of the "Sabre-toothed Tiger" (_Machairodus_), and they
render it certain that the Megalosaur was in the highest degree
destructive and carnivorous in its habits. So far as is known, the
skin was not furnished with any armour of scales or bony plates;
and the fore-limbs are so disproportionately small as compared
with the hind-limbs, that this huge Reptile--like the equally
huge Iguanodon--may be conjectured to have commonly supported
itself on its hind-legs only.
The _Cetiosaur_ attained dimensions even greater than those of
the Megalosaur, one of the largest thigh-bones measuring over
five feet in length and a foot in diameter in the middle, and
the total length of the animal being probably not less than fifty
feet.
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