Dinosaurs, with Special Reference to the American Museum CollectionsMatthew, William Diller
Science
Dinosaurs, with Special Reference to the American Museum Collections
Matthew, William Diller
Dinosaurs
By contrast, the second type of giant dinosaur, the _Brontosaurus_, or
"thunder saurian" of Marsh, as shown in the restoration (fig. 22), was
far more massive in structure and relatively shorter in body. Five
more or less complete skeletons are now to be seen in the Yale,
American, Carnegie, and Field Columbian museums. In 1898 we discovered
in the bluffs, about three miles west of the Bone-Cabin Quarry, the
largest of these animals which has yet been found; it was worked out
with great care and is now being restored and mounted complete in the
American Museum. The thigh-bone is enormous, measuring five feet eight
inches in length, and is relatively of greater mass than that of
_Diplodocus_. The neck, chest, hips, and tail are correspondingly
massive. The neck is relatively shorter, however, measuring eighteen
feet, while in _Diplodocus_ it measures over twenty-one feet. The
total length of this massive specimen is estimated at sixty-three
feet, or from six to eight feet less than the largest "long-limbed"
dinosaur. The height of the skeleton at the hips is fifteen feet.
There is less direct evidence that the "thunder saurian" had the power
of raising its fore quarters in the air than in the case of the
"light-limbed saurian," because no bend or supporting point in the
tail has been distinctly observed.
The third type of giant dinosaur is the less completely known
"chambered saurian," the _Camarasaurus_ of Cope or _Morosaurus_ of
Marsh, an animal more quadrupedal in gait or walking more habitually
on all fours, like the great _Cetiosaurus_, or "whale saurian,"
discovered near Oxford, England. With its shorter tail and heavier
fore limbs, it is still less probable that this animal had the power
of raising the anterior part of its body from the ground. Of a related
type, perhaps, is the largest dinosaur ever found; this is the
_Brachiosaurus_, limb-bones of which were discovered in central
Colorado in 1901 and are now preserved in the Field Columbian Museum
of Chicago. Its thigh-bone is six feet eight inches in length, and its
upper arm-bone, or humerus, is even slightly longer.
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