Dr. Buckland, in his _Bridgewater Treatise_, 1836, referred to a limb-bone in the Oxford Museum, from the great Oolite formation near Woodstock, which was examined by Cuvier, and pronounced to have once belonged to a whale; also a very large rib, which seemed whale-like. In 1838 Professor Owen, when collecting materials for his famous _Report on the Fossil Reptiles of Great Britain_, inspected this remarkable limb-bone, and could not match it with any bones known among the whale tribe; and yet its structure, where exposed, was like that of the long bone (humerus) of the paddle of a whale. Later on, he abandoned the idea that it once belonged to a whale, and it was thought that the extinct animal in question might have been a reptile of the crocodilean order. In time, a fine series of limb-bones and vertebræ was added to the Oxford Museum by Professor Phillips (Dr. Buckland's successor at Oxford), who pronounced them to be Dinosaurian. The name "Cetiosaurus"[11] (or Whale-lizard), originally given by Owen, was unfortunate, because there is really nothing whale-like about it, except a certain coarse texture of some of the bones.
[11] Greek--_ketion_, whale; _sauros_, lizard.
In 1848 Dr. Buckland announced the discovery of another limb-bone (a femur), which Owen referred to Cetiosaurus; it was four feet three inches in length. Between 1868 and 1870, however, a considerable portion of a skeleton was discovered in the same formation at Kirtlington Station, near Oxford. These remains were the subject of careful examination by Professors Owen and Phillips. The femur this time was five feet four inches long. Their studies threw much light on the nature and habits of Cetiosaurus.
Although showing in many ways an approach to the crocodile type of reptile, yet it was perceived from the nature of the limbs that they were better fitted for walking on land than are those of a crocodile, with its sprawling limbs. Still, Professor Owen was careful to point out that the vertebræ of its long tail indicate suitability as a powerful swimming organ, and concluded that the creature was more aquatic than terrestrial in its habits. Plaster casts of the limb-bones may be seen at the British Museum of Natural History, side by side with the huge Atlantosaurus cast sent by Professor Marsh.