Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1877-11-07

Description of the Dlnosaurians. tia
Largest Animals on Record.

BeScTlptton W tue HiHOSNuTlhnS. tua
Largest Animals on Record.
Prof, 0. c. Marsh, at meeting of the
National Academy of Sciences, ut 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 belt of rocks known as the Dakota
group" There strata lie between the
Jurassic below and wcllmarkcd ere
taceous beds above The fossils dis
covered there, until recent date, have
been plants and a few invertebrate re-
mains had been found in this strata
Some of the government surveys had
classified the desposits rs of marine
origin. Early last sprirs the remains
of Il gigantic dinoSaurian reptile We're
discovered in the beds, and since then
numerous other fossils of the reptiian
1 kind have been found mt 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 II we'll established
| principlcin 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 larges,
of land and water animals which have
ever existed The discovery of the
tdanosauUuS, n land animal of more than
double the size of the elephant, il there
fore a surprise.
The question is how could such an
animal sustain the enormous weight
that must rest upon its limbs? Would
not Its weight have prevented 1t from
moving? Consider its size II was fifty
or sixty 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
vcrtebrm were constructed like those Of
birds, having cavities into which air
was admitted, Thus light weight was
attained, with great strength of struc-
are. Some of the vcrtchrW of this
huge reptile were of similar pattern 10
those of the icl,0,y0rpiS, Il crctaccou-
bird not larger than n pigeon, These
vertebrc were hiconcayc; chat Ia, each
was hollow mt the end. Also every
vcrtebrr had large cavity on each
/ hlte lDT inc ADMISSION Oh ulT. sumo ol
these yertcbrc are sixteen inches III
traverse diameter Another of these
gigantic dinosaurs is the dpaiosdur,ls; It's
distinctive characteristics were described
by Prof. Marsh Nearly in the same
geological horizon there were found
also the remains Of the smallest dino
t,dR0sdiiiieS not bigger than n
cat Along with these dinosaurs wns
found crocodile of importance "a
naturalists, rs it furnishes II missing
link between the crocodile OF the past
and the present. There were also vari-
Gus turtles and fishes
The assemblage Of these animal, is
remarkably like that Of the Wcalden
Of Europe, especially of the Tilgate
Forest of England, where Mantcll dis
covered the iguanadon. They indicate
that we have, in the so-cnllcd Dakota
group, II representative Of the Veal
den Of Europe, not hitherto recognized
in this country. II is not improbable
that some Of these remains come from
u lower horizon than the Wcaldcn;
there is evidence that part Of them may
be of JuraSsio age. In these gigantic
dinosaurs Oh Dakota were closely allied
to the Connecticut trackmakers; and if
we could find in the Rocky Mountains
. shales and sandstones Of the Wealdcn
age, we should undoubtedly find the
so-called "birdtracks" upon them