Nebraska advertiser. [volume] (Brownville, Nemaha County, N.T. [Neb.]) 1856-1882, 1882-02-09
THE FOSSIL SEA.SERPENT.

EVfONih NEh-oEht ENIa
The announcement that bones of some
gigantic reptile have been dug out of
Monmouth County IN. J.) mari pit tx
never startling one. This is classic
ground for the palrontologist. and an
active man with shovel is never certain
some monster who once made the old
cretaceous sea boil like n pot These
mari beds are deposits of that ancient
sea which rolled over so much of this
continent, sweeping from New Jersey
TO Texas and up the Red River Valley
10 the Hanks of the Rocky Mountains.
The mari derives its value as fertilizer
mainly from the one, two or three per
cent of phosphoric acid which il con-
tains, and the phosphorus is manifestly
derived from the phosphate of lime i'm
the bones which were buried in this
spacious cemetery. The New jersey
end of this graveyard has been worked
longer than any other area. and the re-
mains of the various reptiles found here
are constantly referred to for compare
son in works on palmontology. EXten-
sive discoveries in the West have been
more recently made but these cid set
tiers of Monmouth County were able to
hold their own against any "dragon of
the prime, in this age when the race of
reptiles reached its elimination. The
different orders of these saurians have
been pretty thoroughly studied and
classified, but there is always POSSIBLE
lty OF exhuming some new species, and
therefore when il was announced last
hat 4,
ment of t,isks had been discovered in
Marlboro, representative of the Tribune
called upon Prof Samuel Lockwood. Of
Freehold, to ascertain what the find
really was.
Prof. Lockwood, who il n fellow of
half dozen learned societies, and a
recognized authority in matters of this
Sort alluded with some disrespect to the
amateur scientist who decorated the old
serpent with tusks, II kind of furniture
which only belonged to mammals of the
more advanced type and of more re-
cent age. Nevertheless, this Marlboro
reptile was an interesting object to get
away from when alive and squirming.
He was between seventy and eighty feet
in length, about one-third of his longi-
tude being broad, flattish tail con-
structed of chevron-shaped bones, so as
to make ii a valuable engine of propul-
sion when used as a scull. The data
furnished by the relics would imply that
between the tip of his muzzle and the
back of his head was distance of four
or five feet. 1t is possible that the spec
linen belongs to some undescribed
species, but perhaps the remains are too
imperfect to decide this. 1t is certain,
however, that it belongs to the genus
Clidastes, many species of which have
been determined, and which have been
abundantly found in the West. Gil
dasteS was an own cousin to the Mosa-
saurus, or the great lizard of the River
Mouse, described by Cuvier. The Eu-
ropean reptile, however, was of more
chunky build, with shorter head and
neck and stronger jaws. Both belonged
TO the order of Pythonomorphs, or
snakelike saurians, which were the cen
uine sea-serpents of the period.
The most wonderful fact in connec-
ton with these Monmouth marls is that
they contain representatives of so many
distinct orders of animal life which are
now, with all the countless species they
embraced, absolutely extinct. This was
the age of tie glorious Ammonites, not
one OF which has survived, and of the
Nautili, of which but two species are
found in modern seas OF the six great
orders of Reptilians, representatives of
but two survive, so destructive to animal
life was the emergence of continents
and the change of climate at the close
of the cretaceous era OF the reptiles,
the order occupying the highest rank
was the Dinosaurs, who well deserved
the epthet terrible Prof. Lockwood
himself discovered the remains of CO.
lossal specimen of the order in clay
bank by Raritan Bay, This monster
walked about without cane, on his
hind legs, which were thirteen feet
long. In attitude and construction this
order was prophetic of the coming os-
trich. Next in rank were the Pterosau-
ria, or flying lizards, the expanded
wings of some of these pleasant Great
ures measuring twenty-five feet from
tip to tip. Below these came the Croco-
dilia, resembling our aligators, and
cuirassed with bony plates. According
to modern classification, another order,
the Sauropterygia, came before the
Testudinata, or turtles. with which the