Ichthyosauria

"These particulars, in which the bones of this animal differ from those of fishes, are sufficient to shew, that although the mode of its progressive motion has induced me to place it in that class, I by no means consider it as wholly a fish, when compared with other fishes, but rather view it in a similar light to those animals met with in New South Wales, which appear to be so many deviations from ordinary structure, for the purpose of making intermediate connecting links, to unite in the closest manner the classes of which the great chain of animated beings is composed."

"Its place in the chain of animal creation is clearly pointed out to be between the proteus and lizard, and will be suffi­ciently marked out by calling it Proteo-saurus."

"Half lizard, and half fish, the name Ichthyosauri expresses the words, but not the Idea which lurks within them. It is therefore only a conventional term, forced upon us by the rash attempt to ally Past and Present Races, living under two such alien Planets."

"Es rauscht in den Schachtelhalmen, Verdächtig leuchtet das Meer, Da schwimmt mit Thränen im Auge Ein Ichthyosaurus daher."

"There is no reason whatever to believe that the order of nature has any greater bias in favor of man than it had in favor of the icthyosaur [sic] or the pterodactyl."

"This sea-going reptile with terrestrial ancestors converged so strongly on fishes that it actually evolved a dorsal fin and tail in just the right place and with just the right hydrological design. These structures are all the more remarkable because they evolved from nothing—the ancestral terrestrial reptile had no hump on its back or blade on its tail to serve as a precursor."

"Leptopterygius, big as a city bus, was an insatiable ichthyosaur, anything captured by Leptopterygius Never was seen in the sea anymore."