The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1884-12-27
ANIMALS AND THEIR WAYS.
4 Remarkable Extinct Specimen Discov-
cred in the South--ComparatiVe Anat-
omy With Interesting Incidents.

Remarkable Extinct Specimen Discov-
cred in the South-ComparatiVe Anat-
omy with Interesting Incidents.
Among the most remarkable of all
extinct animals yet discovered may be
named the zuClodon. This ancient
archaeological creature was once an
nhabitant of the lagOons that once ex-
isted near the mouth of the Mississippi
river. He was found in the great lime
stone beds in the State Of Alabama,
where in solid rock he reposed entomb-
I'd for at least thousand centuries.
His great body passed into gases and
ashes, and the mold which was made
by his skeleton, filled up with carbon
ate of lime and became solid. So tho
celebrated DIR. Koch, the great German
paleontologist, found this immense rep
lie or nondescript- He was not snake,
not fish, not an alligator; but yet he
had parts that resembled all these crea-
lures. His fossil remains (once on ex-
hibition in St. Louis, but finally de-
stroyed in the Chicago fire., which
were fac SMILES of his bones, measur-
ed lO5 feet from his nose to the end OF
his TAN There is no living or extinct
animal that had head anything like
him. 1t was ten feet long; the jaws,
7 feet. They were armed with teeth
similar TO those of the narwal whale.
The circumference Of his body at the
thickest part could not have been less
than "a feet. He was provided with an
excuse for a scapula or shoulder-blade;
to this WIS added tumerus (upper
bone OF the army and small radius
and uina (the two lower bones of the
army and two or three phalanges simi-
lar to the bones OF the human hand.
This appendage could not have been Of
much use in propelling the monster.
The work was undoubtedly done by his
vast eel-like tail, which was quite sixty
feet in length. AS fighter, this fellow
could certainly have yanquished all
corners. He could have chewed the
largest alligator with as much ease as a
sea bass would swallow moss-bunker.
The mastodon or Missourium was a
huge elephant, without trunk, at least
not such snout as the elephant we
have in this age. He was grass-eat-
er and lived in the vast prairies which
reach from western New York directly
west to the foothills of the Rocky
mountains. We find his bones in a
good state OF preservation only little
ways beneath the surface, showing that
he is of recent origin as compared with
those gigantic fossils which are all
stone. These animals have filled their
places in nature, and when their sur
roundngs were no longer suitable to
their existence they became extinct, So
it will be in the flight Of centuries; an
FINALS that live now will pass away.
1t would be useless to speculate upon
the vast number of fishes and reptiles
of the seas that have become extinct,
as the oceans present no method by
which its denizens can be petriiied or
fossilized; but that there have been
more fishes that have become extinct
that there have been of animals there
can be no question.
The peculiar construction OF some
quadrupeds presents a number of prob
lens which as yet our greatest compar-
alive ANTAGONISTS have not been able to
give any solution.
We know of no living thing that
will compare with the common flea in
strength and agility. A flea, one-six-
teenth of an inch in length, can jump a
distance OF twenty inches. This is $50
times its length. II we should require
six-foot man to jump 320 times his
length he would have to land 1920 feet
from where he left the ground.
Our common gray rabbit is one of
the best jumpers we have. 1t is very
easy to measure the strides of this MIN
bic little fellow in slight fall of snow.
When he is pushed by a swift dog his
Jumps on level ground are about nine
feet clear. In proportion to length, a
horse to jump az far as a rabbit would
have to clear siNty-tour feet at Jump.
There is no quadruped that has such
powerful muscles in his quarters as the
rabbit. and none excel him in the mus
cles OF his loin and back. The horse
on the contrary cannot jump more than
twenty feet. Longfellow jumped
this distance in all his great races. No
doubt the great Miss Woodford can
and does jump twenty-siN and twenty
seven feet in her best races. Goldsmith
Maid stepped with her hind feet seven
teen feet when she was GOING at 2:l5
gait.
1t is said that Flying Dutchman, a
trotter under the saddle Of the olden
time. stepped twenty-five feet. If Mr..
Bonner should measure the stride of
Maud ;. he would lind il not less than
twenty feet.
The gated horse. next to the gallop-
ing gait, will be found to be the PAGER.
His reach IS twenty feet when going his