New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1880-09-08
Tho Huge Reptiles That Once Inhabit-
cd the Earth. s.s:=>::;;

The Brooklyn IN. W Uniq,s and III.
gus gives the following abstract Of a lee
ture on geology recently delivered in
that city by Prof. L. H. Fairchild:
The lecturer said: We have for our
consideration this evening an age in the
carth's history as well marked as any
other. So far as science is able to shed
light upon the past, the age stands out
as prominently as any other with which
geology has to deal In this old age, an
age Immediately succeeding the coal
period of which / spoke last week, rep
tiles ruled the earth; indeed, were tho
tyrants of the earth. And huge mon
sters they were, some as large as the
whale. The largest living reptile is the
crocodile, with femur (thigh bone) six
inches long and an inch and half in di-
amcter. What size do you suppose tho
femur was of the largest animal that
lived in the Reptilian Agcp Professor
Newberry, of New York, has plaster
cast, and this is not entire, as a portion
of the socket of the original is wanting,
which shows one of these animals to
have had a femur six feet two inches
long, and two feet in diameter ut ono
end and eighteen inches at the other.
Bones bear such relation to each other,
there is such a correlation between tho
parts OF skeletons, that, give scientist q
single bone or tooth and he is able to re-
construct the entire skeleton. Thus re-
constructing this animal it must have
stood thirty or forty feet high, and if it
had tail, as lizards have, must have
been 100 feet long. 1t is the largest
land animal known, though it may DO
eclipsed by future discoveries The
great bulk of our whale is supported by
the buoyant power of the water How
then could such huge animal as that
just described have existed on the landp
Without doubt the flesh was not so
heavy, while the bones were more por-
GUS. There were many other animals in
the age, but none so large. We can
form some estimate of the number of
animals that existed in the Rcptilian
Age by comparing their remains with
the number of animals that to-day die
and are imbedded in the mud. Proba-
bly, no more than one out Of 10000 or
100, 900 animals that die to-day are thus
preserved Therefore VIC conclude that
I'LL aye Ill;k. lclG SuCu al abundance Ol
remains must have had numerous ami
mails.
A word as to the growth OF our CONT
nent during this age. You will remem-
Der that North America was at first V
shaped; that by successive fallings and
risings and the exposure of beds Of sand
and mud along its borders 1t gradually
grew, until at tho end of the carbopifer-
Gus age 1t extended to the south of our
coal fields. So far the rock making had
all gone on to the eastward, but now in
the Reptilian Age we find the scene Of
continental growth shifting to the west,
and tho Sierra Nevada, Wasatch and
Henry Mountains and some others arc
formed, but not the Rocky Mountains,
which are Of later date, and at its end
we find the continent nearly completed
all but little strip along the coast Of
the Southern States and Mexico and the
western coast of America There are
some formations connected with this PEE
Rod that have an interest for US. You
know the houses Of Brooklyn Ind
New York are built of brown stone. This
stone is rock Of the Reptilian Age, for
during that ago the valley Of the Con.
necticut was On arm Of the sea. and