Description of a New Plesiosaur from the Weald Clay of Berwick (Sussex)

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Abstract
The Plesiosaurian remains which form the subject of the present paper were contained in a large septarian nodule from the Upper Weald Clay of Berwick (Sussex). This nodule was found in the excavations made by the Cuckmere Brick Company; it was broken into many fragments which were, so far as possible, collected by Mr. S. Tooth, M.Inst.C.E., and by him presented to the British Museum (Natural History). The pieces, many of which clearly contained portions of bones, were reunited, and the gaps resulting from the loss of fragments filled in with plaster of Paris, so that the original form of the nodule was restored. The extremely hard matrix was then slowly and with great skill chiselled away by Mr. L. Parsons, who found that it enclosed a mass of bones for the greater part thrown together in the utmost confusion, with the result that their removal was a matter of extreme difficulty. Despite these drawbacks, however, he succeeded in getting out the hinder part of the skull and a nearly complete shoulder-girdle, all the elements of which seem to be quite undistorted by pressure, a most unusual circumstance. The humeri were also found, but the rest of the paddles, which probably projected beyond the limits of the concretion, was lost. Numerous cervical and dorsal vertebræ, ribs, and ventral ribs were found; but of the pelvis and hinder limb nothing remained, and only one or two imperfect caudal vertebræ were preserved. The skull (PL XIV, figs. 1 & 2).—This is unfortunately

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