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Re: Plesiosaur quote



Richard Ellis (richellis@nyc.rr.com) wrote:

< In his 1914 Water Reptiles of the Past and Present, Samuel Williston
wrote, "It was Dean Buckland who facetiously likened the plesiosaurs to a
snake threaded through the shell of a turtle," but what Buckland actually
wrote (in the 1836 Bridgewater Treatise), was: "'To the head of a lizard,
it united the teeth of a crocodile; a neck of enormous length, resembling
the body of a serpent; a trunk and tail having the proportions of any
ordinary quadruped, the ribs of a chamaeleon and the paddles of a
whale.'">

  I think this is a case of paraphrasing and word of mouth. It may have
been a non-published source, perhaps commonly known in the community for
lecturing without publication, that Buckland made this statement, or that
the allusion being looked for was paraphrased from someone reading this
description. It may be futile to look for a particular printed reference.

  Cheers,

=====
Jaime A. Headden

  Little steps are often the hardest to take.  We are too used to making leaps 
in the face of adversity, that a simple skip is so hard to do.  We should all 
learn to walk soft, walk small, see the world around us rather than zoom by it.

"Innocent, unbiased observation is a myth." --- P.B. Medawar (1969)

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