Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1877-11-07
A BIG BRUTE.
Description Of the DinOsaurians. the
Largest Animals on RECORD,


Prof. 0. c. Marsh, at meeting of the
National Academy of Sciences, at New
York, read an essay on Some Gigantic
Dinosaurian Reptiles from the Wealden
of the Rocky Mountains" On the
eastern flank Of these mountains there
is a belt of rocks known as the Dakota
group" There strata lie between the
Jurassic below and well-marked Gre
taceous beds above. The fossils dis
covered there, until recent date, have
been plants and few invertebrate re-
mains had been found in this strata.
Some of the government surveys had
classified the desposits as Of marine
origin. Early last spring the remains
OF a gigantic dinosaurian reptile were
discovered in the beds, and since then
numerous other fossils of the reptiIian
kind have been found at several local.
ties in the region widely separated. The
reptile was by far larger than any land
animal ever discovered in any part Of
the world There is a we'll established
principle IN mechanics which limits the
size, with ordinary construction, of land
or water animals, and hitherto it has
been claimed that the elephant and the
whale had reached that limit, being
supposed to be respectively the largest
of land and water animals which have
ever existed. The discovery of the
titoaosaatr,ls, a land animal of more than
double the size Of the elephant, is there
fore surprise
The question is how could such an
animal sustain the enormous weight
that must rest upon its limbs? Would
not It's weight have prevented it from
moving? Consider its size; it was fifty
or4sixty feet long, and when erect, thirty
or forty feet high. Now comes the
curious answer to this question. The
bones Of this animal were hollow; its
vertebre were constructed like those Of
birds, having cavities into which air
was admitted. Thus light weight was
attained, with great strength Of struc-
5ure., Some of the vertebrse of this
huge reptile were Of similar pattern to
those Of the icztayo,7ais a cretaceous
bird not larger than a pigeon. These
vertebrse were biconcaye; that IS, each
was hollow at the end Also every
vertebre had a large cavity on each
side for the admission of air. Some of
these vertebre are sixteen inches in
traverse diameter Another of these
gigantic dinosaurs is the apalosaurus; its
distinctive characteristics were described
by Prof Marsh Nearly in the same
geological horizon there were found
also the remains of the smallest dino
saurs- 'aa,aosaauqts -not bigger than a
cat. Along with these dinosaurs was
found a crocodile Of importance to
naturalistss as it furnishes a missing
link between the crocodile of the past
and the present. There were also vari-.
Gus turtles and fishes.
The assemblage of these animals is
remarkably like that of the Wealden
of Europe, especially of the rilgate
Forest of England, where Mantell dis
covered the iguanadon. They indicate
that we have, in the so-called Dakota
group, q representative of the Veal
den of Europe, not hitherto recognized
in this country. It is not improbable
that some of these remains come from
a lower horizon than the Wealden;
there is evidence that part of them may
be of Jurassic age. In these gigantic
dinosaurs or Dakota were closely allied
to the Connecticut trackmakers; and if
we could find in the Rocky Mountains
shales and sandstones of the ,Wealden
age, we should undoubtedly find the
so-called bird-tracks" upon them.