Justin B. Delair

Academic paper

Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine

76

155-164

For over I60 years Wiltshire has yielded an abundant and scientifically important harvest of reptilian fossils. Comparatively few of these have been noticed in the literature, however, and of those so treated relatively few have been adequately described, even though several have been made the types of distinct new genera and species. Some of these animals are unique to Wiltshire. Many of the earliest accounts date from the first half of the nineteenth century, when standards of description were somewhat uneven and, in addition to some of the actual specimens having since been lost or destroyed, that has resulted in our knowledge of the relevant animals being less than satisfactory. The recent location in the Bath geological collections of additional; Wiltshire material belonging to certain poorly known Jurassic saurians, and at Devizes of remains representative of a hitherto undescribed marine reptile, enables the county�s palaeontological records to be extended accordingly. This material is discussed below, existing genera being dealt with first.

English