The genus _Beryx_ (fig. 208, 1) is one
represented by existing species at the present day, and belongs
to the Perch family. The genus _Osmeroides_, again (fig. 208,
2), is supposed to be related to the living Smelts (_Osmerus_),
and, therefore, to belong to the Salmon tribe.
[Illustration: Fig. 205.--Guard of _Belemnitella mucronata_. White
Chalk.]
[Illustration: Fig. 206.--Tooth of _Hybodus_.]
[Illustration: Fig. 207.--Fin-spine of _Hybodus_. Lower Greensand.]
[Illustration: Fig. 208.--1, _Beryx Lewesiensis_, a Percoid fish
from the Chalk; 2, _Osmeroides Mantelli_, a Salmonoid fish from
the Chalk.]
No remains of _Amphibians_ have hitherto been detected in any part
of the Cretaceous series; but _Reptiles_ are extremely numerous,
and belong to very varied types. As regards the great extinct groups
of Reptiles which characterise the Mesozoic period as a whole, the
huge "Enaliosaurs" or "Sea-Lizards" are still represented by the
_Ichthyosaur_ and the _Plesiosaur_. Nearly allied to the latter
of these is the _Elasmosaurus_ of the American Cretaceous, which
combined the long tail of the Ichthyosaur with the long neck
of the Plesiosaur. The length of this monstrous Reptile could not
have been less than fifty feet, the neck consisting of over sixty
vertebrae and measuring over twenty feet in length. The extraordinary
Flying Reptiles of the Jurassic are likewise well represented in
the Cretaceous rocks by species of the genus _Pterodactylus_
itself, and these later forms are much more gigantic in their
dimensions than their predecessors.
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