Note on a New and Undescribed Wealden Vertebra

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Abstract
T his vertebra was found on the shore near Brooke, Isle of Wight, almost completely hidden in a large block of stone. Last autumn, when I obtained it, I showed the block to Mr. Fox, of Brighstone, whose knowledge of the Wealden strata in this neighbourhood is unrivalled; and he without hesitation referred it to a bed which occurs near the top of the high cliff between Brooke and Chilton. The centrum has unfortunately been broken across, and the greater part of it, including both articular faces, is missing. Only a small part of it, including the floor of the neural canal, remains, surmounted by a singularly framed superstructure, which, although much distorted by pressure, is yet sufficiently preserved to afford a good idea of its perfect form. The bony tissue is very compact, which makes the outer surface very smooth, and even polished. It takes principally the shape of thin plates, many of which are not thicker than stout writing-paper. Where the interior of the stouter parts of the vertebra is exposed, the broken surfaces show a thin outer shell of bone enclosing an extremely coarse cancellated tissue, the spaces of which are immense, exceeding by many times those of the cancellous tissue of all the contemporary Dinosaurs yet known to us, and reminding us in some measure of those of Pterodactylian bones. The neurapephyses (P1. XXII. figs. 1 & 2, np ), in their present mutilated state, measure about 5 inches from front to back; but their real length was

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