The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1880-05-06
The Huge Reptiles That Once Inhabit.
ed the Earth.


The lecturer said: We have for our
consideration this evening an age in the
earth'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 mas 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 the
tyrants of the earth. And huge mon
sters they were, some as large as the
whale. The largest living reptile is the
crocodile, with femu (thigh bone) six
inches long and an inch and a half in d.
ameter. What size doyou suppose the
femur was of the largest animal that
lived in the Reptilian Age? Professor
Newberry, of New York, has a 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 femur six feet two inches
long, and two feet in diameter at one
end and eighteen inches at the other.
Bones bear such relation to each other,
there is such a correlation between the
parts of skeletons, that, give scientist a
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 a tail, as lizards have, must have
been 100 feet long. 1t is the largest
land animal known, though it may be
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
lust described have existed on the land?
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 Reptilian
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 we conclude that
an age that left such an abundance Of
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 '
shaped; that by successive fallings and
risings and the exposure of beds of sand
and mud along its borders it gradually
grew, until at the end of the carbOnifer-
Gus age it 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 the Sierra Nevada, Wasatch and
Henry Mountains and some others are
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 pc
| Rod that have an interest for us. You
| know the houses of Brooklyn and
! New York are built of brown stone. This
stone is a rock of the Reptilian Age, for
| during that age the valley of the Con-
necticut was an arm of the sea, and
seems to have been gradually sinking,
/
boring hills being washed into it, until
to-day we have as a result bed OF stone
hundreds of feet thick, composed OF
hardened, triturated, pulverized rock.
Iron enters into the composition of the
stone, but in an oxydized state, which
gives the stone the color for which it i:
so highly priced, and the quality of dura.
bility. There is another strip of similar
rock, beginning at the Palisades and eX
tending southwest through New Jer
rev into Pennsylvania, and then run
ming to the westward and far into
the State of Virginia. This rock belong!
to the Triassic period of the age, the
other periods being the JurasSic anC
Cretacious. There is no doubt that the
long strip of rock last described alsC
marks the position of an ancient valley
to which the sea had free access. Ii
this brown stone we find the remains o
reptiles, and the first traces discovered
in America were found at the Portland
quarries, in Connecticut. A prOminen
plant of the Reptilian Age was similar
to what we call the sagO palm, though i
is not palm. 1t is a very interesting
plant. because it combines the PECULIAR
ties of three tree families, having thu
habits of the palm, but having its grea
fronds rolled at their eXtremities as il
the fern, and having the texture of TIT
trunk similar to the structure of tn,
conefer or pine. 1t is what is known a
the synthetic type, and the cycad, as i
is called, was the characteristic plant o
the Reptilian Age.
The Age of Reptiles could very trul,
be called the Age of Mollusks, but w
designate it by the former title becaus
the reptile represented the highest typ
of animal life then existing. The bivalve
were very different from any living repre-
sentatives, one for instance being cOnica
in form and having a cap at the top
Some of the univalves were a foot il
diameter. The largest mollusks in al
ages have been the cephalopods, 0
deviI-fishes, and in the Reptilian Ag
they were wonderful creatures. Thei
shells were of almost all conceiyabl
shapes, coiled, spiral and twisted. Tn
diameter of our pearly nautilus is 81
inches, but these old ancestors some
times attained diameter Of three feet
Then we have a few fishes in this age
the first appearance of the modern ifs
with bony skeleton and membranou
scales. The lecturer here used the Ian
tern to show the reptiles of the age
First he showed the so-called - bird
tracks of the Connecticut Valley. on
impression being twenty inches long
Another track showed fat glove-lik
tracks in an European slab, attentio
being directed to mud cracks in III
stone. The icthyosaurus, a swimmin
reptile, having a long pointed head. an
lone slender tail. with fippers as pad