3-017-225 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Remains of an extinct animal found in the Isle of Wight, 1865. 'A very remarkable reptile, to which Professor Owen has given the name of Polacanthus, has lately been discovered...This reptile is of a new genus in the Dinosaurian family...The most remarkable character in the creature was this - its back was covered with an immense shield of bone...about ½ in. thick, and taking away all elasticity from the spinal column. This unusual way of strengthening the back through the bone shield is accompanied with very slender though deep dorsal vertebrae, as may be seen in the bone No. 6. Another special peculiarity of this dragon was its immense spines...(4 and 5)...[which] probably ran along the sides of its body and tail as a defence to the less protected parts underneath, which parts were also covered with thick subcircular scutes...some crested, some ridged, as seen in the bones numbered 1 and 7. The leg-bones are very strong and solid, and very large in the joints, with rough and conspicuous surfaces for muscular attachment. In the middle bone (No. 1) the femur is a very conspicuous trochanter, looking like a large excrescence of bone, which had relation to reptilian muscles, by which their limbs were supported in their usually crooked posture'. From "Illustrated London News", 1865.