Largest of these animals was the Phytosaur, a crocodile-like reptile about 18 feet long and weighing nearly a ton. Nostrils were located on top of the head. These reptiles were omnivorous feeders, and with their webbed feet and long flattened tails were at home either on land or in the water. The Phytosaur was a distant relative of the Dinosaur but became extinct before the Dinosaur reached its peak of development. Another inhabitant of the swampy lowlands where ancient logs were stranded was the Stegocephalian, a primitive amphibian related to modern salamanders, or mud puppies, but of huge size. They were heavy, flattened creatures from six to nine feet long and probably weighed about 500 to 600 pounds. Their legs were very short, and they moved about by dragging themselves over the swampy ground, probably being carnivorous feeders. The skull was almost completely solid and had openings only for the nostrils, eyes, and a peculiar third eye in the top which probably was capable of distinguishing movement or light, but not color. Several types of fishes, amphibians, and small reptiles probably lived along the streams and in the quiet pools of those ancient marshes. Among them were lung-fishes whose teeth or “dental plates” are now found scattered through the badlands of the Petrified Forest. Large rushes, or horsetails, bordered the streams and matted the swamps. Their hollow stems grew to eight and ten inches in diameter and 30 to 40 feet tall. At each joint were whorls of slender branches. Large, broad-leaved ferns formed a striking contrast with the delicate foliage of the seed fern types. Club mosses probably grew in small clusters in sheltered places along the banks of the streams and pools. How different this scene of millions of years ago was from our present-day landscape and modern plant and animal life. The climate must have been at least sub-tropical then; today it is semi-arid. In contrast to the plants and animals of those Triassic times living in swamps and marshes, we now have plants and animals that are able to exist with a minimum of moisture. The present ground-cover is seldom over three or four feet high, but includes a wide variety of plants ranging from very small flowering herbs to the several species of gray-foliaged salt brush and other shrubs. With suitable moisture, the spring and fall wildflower displays are often very showy. The early blooms of the chimaya, phacelia, and the large, white, evening primroses are soon followed by desert mallow; vetch; a small white daisy-like Fleabane; the large yellow tulip-like flowers of the mariposa or sego lily; and as the season advances, the paint brush; asters; snake weed; golden aster; rabbit brush; and many others.