Extinct Monsters: A Popular Account of Some of the Larger Forms of Ancient Animal LifeHutchinson, H. N. (Henry Neville)
Science
Extinct Monsters: A Popular Account of Some of the Larger Forms of Ancient Animal Life
Hutchinson, H. N. (Henry Neville)
Paleontology
discovery of bird-like reptiles and reptilian birds. Compsognathus and
Archæopteryx of the Old World, and Ichthyornis and Hesperornis of the
New, are the stepping-stones by which the Evolutionist of to-day
leads the doubting brother across the shallow remnant of the gulf,
once thought impassable."[22]
[22] _The Introduction and Succession of Vertebrate Life in America._
An address delivered before the American Association for the
Advancement of Science, at Nashville, Tenn., August, 1877. See
_Nature_, vol. xvi.
We now pass on to describe two of the strangest and most wonderful of
all the Dinosaurs, recently discovered in the far West. The first of
these is the Stegosaurus,[23] or plated lizard, not wholly unknown
before, because part of its skeleton was found some years ago in a
brickfield in the Kimmeridge Clay at Swindon. It has been proved that
some of the bones to which the name Omosaurus[24] has been applied
really belonged to the former genus.
[23] Greek--_stegos_, roof or covering; _sauros_, lizard.
[24] Greek--_omos_, humerus, and _sauros_, lizard.
With such complete specimens now known by Professor Marsh's
descriptions, it will not be necessary to mention the meagre remains
discovered in this country, or the conclusions arrived at by Owen and
Seeley, interesting as they are.
In the year 1877 Professor Marsh described, in the _American Journal
of Science_, a considerable portion of a skeleton of a Stegosaur,
remarking that this genus proved to be one of the most remarkable
animals yet discovered. It was found on the eastern flank of the Rocky
Mountains, in strata of Jurassic age; they indicated an animal about
twenty-five feet long, and for this discovery Science is indebted to
Professor A. Lakes and Engineer H. C. Beckwith of the United States
Navy, who found the remains in Colorado, near the locality of the
gigantic Atlantosaurus. The solid limb-bones seem to point to an
aquatic life, but there can be little doubt that the monster did not
pass all its time in the water. (Fig. 25 shows the skeleton.)[25]
[25] The writer is informed that this skeleton is not yet mounted in
the Yale College Museum, but that it will be before long. Our artist
has drawn it as if set up, with a man standing by for comparison.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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