All,
Just a little searching around on Google for "ichthyosaur" resulted in four rather obscure papers.... The first one is a brief note by H.F. Osborn... (including the figure above):
Osborn, H.F. 1901. An ichthyosaur with young. The American Museum Journal 1(11):156-158 [October].The American Museum has just received a royal gift from the Museum of Stuttgart, Würtemberg. It comes through Prof. Eberhard Fraas, who made a long tour of exploration in the fossil beds of the Rocky Mountain region with Professor Osborn last spring. The fossil is a superb specimen of an Ichthyosaur, from the Jurassic quarry of Holzmaden, a little town not far from Stuttgart, which is famous for its Ichthyosaur remains. The specimen just received by the Museum is on a slab, 9 feet 3 inches in length and 2 feet 5 inches in breadth. It is a perfectly preserved example of the species
Ichthyosaurus quadriscissus. Ichthyosaurs, or marine, externally fishlike fossil reptiles, have been found in abundance both in Germany and in England, but what renders this specimen unique is the fact that it contains indications of several young animals within the body-cavity of the mother, thus giving a beautiful demonstration of the fact that the Ichthyosaurs were viviparous, bringing forth their young alive. The young animals are surprisingly large, the head of the largest being 9^ inches long, or half as large as that of the mother Ichthyosaur. The backbone and paddles of the young are well developed and prove that they were abundantly able to swim and take care of themselves immediately upon birth. This is one of the most remarkable features of the adaptation of the Ichthyosaurs to marine life. The ancestors of these animals undoubtedly lived upon land and were oviparous— but as they became more and more sea-faring in habit there must have been a gradual retention of the young in the abdominal cavity until a later and later period of development. The visits of marine animals to the land for the purpose of egg-laying are very hazardous, as is shown by the life of the marine Turtles, which also live far out at sea and are always obliged to return to the seashore to deposit their eggs.
The other three are:
Lydekker, R. 1892. Recent advances in knowledge of the ichthyosaurian reptiles. Natural Science 1(7):514-521.
Osborn, H.F. 1905 Ichthyosaurs –The evolution of fitness in ichthyosaurs (Fossil wonders of the West). The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine 69:414-422.
R.L.[Notes]. 1911. Advances in reptilian palæontology. Nature 97:196-197.All are now available as pdf files.
Regards,
Mike
