From John Phillips 14 March 1874
Oxford
14 March | 1874
My dear Darwin
I am unable to be in London the 16th: being then en route to Torquay: so that I can not have the pleasure of doing as you wish for Mr H. Parker; but I hope he will be elected:1 You ought to come & see my Cetiosaurus!
50–64 feet long.
10 or 12 ft high & broad.
only the head wanting.2 not a bit like Megalosaurus.
Er Yrs | John Phillips
CD was canvassing support for his nephew Henry Parker, who was hoping to be elected to the Athenaeum Club at a meeting on 16 March 1873. See letter to George Bentham, 9 March [1874] and n. 3.
Phillips had discovered three skeletons of a new species of giant reptile in the genus Cetiosaurus that he named Cetiosaurus oxoniensis in 1871; C. oxoniensis showed affinities to both dinosaurs and crocodilian reptiles, but had none of the avian affinities so conspicuous in the genus of giant reptiles Megalosaurus. (Phillips 1871, p. 291, where it appears as Ceteosaurus oxoniensis).
Please cite as “DCP-LETT-9360,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on