William H. Ballou

“ The short fore legs of a lælaps suggest the habit of using chiefly the hind limbs. It moved in an erect attitude, as its tracks found in the rocks in many places show. Its prehensile claws formed instruments for holding prey. Lælaps had long hind-leg bones; the modern leapers, the kangaroos, have short femurs; the cursorial birds, however, have a similarly short femur, but do not leap; so the form of femur is not conclusive. The modern iguanas have long femurs, and progress by simultaneous motion on all fours; they do not leap, and man, with a long femur, runs only. ”

“ The giant dinosaur would be an appropriate name for another reptile — the camarasaur. The Amphicælius altus, just described, was amphibious in the sense that it fed upon everything it could reach and capture, in or out of water, while wading. The type now to be described was similar in appearance in many respects, except that it waded or swam in the water indifferently. This type was purely herbivorous, and its great bulk suggests that it required at least an acre of plants, grass, and leaves to satisfy its appetite for a meal. ”

“ The teeth, without fangs, are those of serpents, and they differ from the teeth of any of the lizards. The vertebral column resembles that of a serpent in many features, having numerous joints. The ribs are cylindrical, as in lizards and serpents. Science must regard the mosasaurs and their allies as a race of gigantic marine serpent-like reptiles, with powers of swimming and running like the modern snakes. As they had posterior and anterior paddles, they are not unlike Pontoppidan's figure of the sea-serpent. That the mosasaurs had the habit of devouring their prey whole is evident. ”

“ According to geologic reckoning, the dinosaurs were among the highest types of life on earth several million years ago; they left only occasional tracks in the rocks, and now and then a petrified skeleton. These bones, when examined, show how the animal must have moved about, either in water, on land, or in air; the teeth and jaws indicate what he ate, whether of flesh, fish, or vegetation ”

“ It is only the carnivorous line that runs straight from the cotylosaur to lælaps . Why did the large saurians ultimately become extinct, while the small, inoffensive lizards persisted? We may assume that the dinosaurs, being generally distributed over the whole globe, migrated during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic ages; that when extinguished on one section of the globe, others gradually took their places from some other quarter. Their bulk grew so great finally, reaching several tons, that it has been suggested that they mired and died — in other words, «stuck in the mud.» ”

“ Thus, while browsing on treetops with a bird-like beak, its fore limbs resting on the trunks or branches, it presented something of the appearance of the giraffe.
Not even remotely related to the dinosaurs, but with a different ancestry and history, were the great sea lizards. These animals, which suggest the fabled sea-serpent, were the long and terrible mosasaurs; in fact, they possessed eight technical characteristics of serpents of the same period. Mosasaurus Dekayi (Mitchell) is a fair type. ”

“ It was a robust and powerful serpent-like lizard, in which bulk was more developed than length. The elasmosaur, with the longer neck and tail, was fortunate in being a swifter swimmer, since in a contest the animal with stout, short neck and great bulk would have the advantage of larger powers. The Cimoliasaurus magnus (Cope) must have been the lion of the ocean, easily able to whip any monster of the deep which came within reach. ”

“ A type skeleton measures forty-five feet, of which twenty-two feet comprise the neck. Among these animals were undoubtedly the ancestors of the large dinosaurs; but their detailed evolution and ancestry are involved in mystery. As to the order of ascent, Professor Cope and his contemporaries speak only in general terms. Much more exhaustive studies will be required, and more and completer skeletons will have to be brought to light. The evolution of the Mammalia, particularly man, is nearly complete. Not so with the dinosaurs and other reptiles ”

“ Aquatic plants could easily have been gathered by this double spoonbill, and have been tossed, by bird-like jerks of the head and neck, back to the mill of the small and delicate teeth. Of teeth it had four and one half successive sets. In order to submit the food to the action of these vertical shears, the jaws must have been opened widely during mastication, and not unnaturally, as in birds and reptiles the mouth opens to a point behind the eye. ”

“ We have seen that the original saurian was an eight-inch salamander-like animal, found in the Paleozoic Carboniferous, or coal-measures in Ohio. It is astonishing how great and mighty a race sprang from so diminutive and insignificant an ancestry. ”

“ Duringthe age of reptilian life the inoffensive mammals were slowly evolving upon land — at first extremely small, like the oldest and smallest reptiles, and then increasing gradually in size until the present reign of man. ”