Animals of the PastLucas, Frederic A. (Frederic Augustus)
Science
Animals of the Past
Lucas, Frederic A. (Frederic Augustus)
Paleontology
However, intelligence is one thing, life another, and the spinal cord,
with its supply of nerve-substance, doubtless looked after the mere
mechanical functions of life; and while even the spinal cord is in many
cases quite small, in some places, particularly in the sacral region, it
is subject to considerable enlargement. This is notably true of
Stegosaurus, where the sacral enlargement is twenty times the bulk of
the puny brain--a fact noted by Professor Marsh, and seized upon by the
newspapers, which announced that he had discovered a Dinosaur with a
brain in its pelvis.
In their great variety of size and shape the Dinosaurs form an
interesting parallel with the Marsupials of Australia. For just as these
are, as it were, an epitome of the class of mammals, mimicking the
herbivores, carnivores, rodents and even monkeys, so there are
carnivorous and herbivorous Dinosaurs--Dinosaurs that dwelt on land and
others that habitually resided in the water, those that walked upright
and those that crawled about on all fours; and, while there are no hints
that any possessed the power of flight, some members of the group are
very bird-like in form and structure, so much so that it has been
thought that the two may have had a common ancestry.
The smallest of the Dinosaurs whose acquaintance we have made were
little larger than chickens; the largest claim the distinction of being
the largest known quadrupeds that have walked the face of the earth, the
giants not only of their day, but of all time, before whose huge frames
the bones of the Mammoth, that familiar byword for all things great,
seem slight.
For Brontosaurus, the Thunder Lizard, beneath whose mighty tread the
earth shook, and his kindred were from 40 to 60 feet long and 10 to 14
feet high, their thigh bones measuring 5 to 6 feet in length, being the
largest single bones known to us, while some of the vertebrae were 4-1/2
feet high, exceeding in dimensions those of a whale.
[Illustration: Fig. 19--A Hind Leg of the Great Brontosaurus, the
Largest of the Dinosaurs.]
The group to which Brontosaurus belongs, including Diplodocus and
Morosaurus, is distinguished by a large, though rather short, body,
very long neck and tail, and, for the size of the animal, a very small
head. In fact, the head was so small and, in the case of Diplodocus, so
poorly provided with teeth that it must have been quite a task, or a
long-continued pleasure, according to the state of its digestive
apparatus, for the animal to have eaten its daily meal.
[Illustration: Fig. 20.--A Single Vertebra of Brontosaurus.]
An elephant weighing 5 tons eats 100 pounds of hay and 25 pounds of
grain for his day's ration; but, as this food is in a comparatively
concentrated form, it would require at least twice this weight of green
fodder.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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