Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1885-01-15
ANIMALS AND THEIR WAYS.
Remarkable Extinct Specimen Discov.
cred IN the south-Comparativ Anat-
omy With Interesting Incidents.

Among the most remarkable of all
extinct animals yet discovered NAV be
named the zuglodon. This ancien,
archaeological creature was once an
lnhabitant of the lagoons that once ex.
lsteu near the mouth of the Mississippi
rlvor. He was found in the great lime.
sts'ne beds in the State of Alabama,
Were in solid rock he reposed entomb.
ed 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
at9 OF lime and became solid. SO the
celebrated DIR. Koch, the great German
paleontologist, found this immense rep
tile or nondescript. Hewas not a snake,
not fish, not an alligator; but vet 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 frey. which
were fac SMILES of his bones, measur-
ed lO5 feet from his nose to the end OF
ms tail. There is no living or extinct
animal that had head anything like
nm. 1t was ten feet long; the laws
2 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 was added a tumerus upper
bone of the army and small radius
and ulna (the two lower bones of the
arm) and two or three phalanges SINH
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 vanquished all
corners. He could have chewed the
largest alligator with as much ease as q
sea bass would swallow moss-bunker.
The mastodon or Missourium was a
huge elephant, without trunk, at least
not such a snout as the elephant we
have in this age. He was a 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 filed their
places in nature, and when their sur
roundings were no longer suitable to
their existence they became extinct. So
1t will be in the flight of centuries; an
imals 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 petrified or
fossifeed; 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 number of prob
lens which as yet our greatest compar-
alive anatomists 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
distance of twenty inches. This IS 500
times its length. If we should require
a six-foot man to jump $50 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
BILE little fellow in Slight fall of snow.
When he is pushed by swift dog his
Pumps on level ground are about nj no
ioct clear. In proportion to length. q
horse to jump as far as rabbit would
have to clear sixty-four feet at lump.
There is no quadruped that has such
powerful muscles in his quarters as the
rabbit, and none excel him in the mus
Giles of his loin and back. The horse
on the contrary cannot Jump more than
feet. Longfellow jumped
his distance in all his great races. No
ioubt the great Miss Woodford can
md does jump twenty-six and twenty
seven feet in her best races. Goldsmith
Maid stepped with her hind feet seven
teen feet when she was going at 2:15
gait.
1t is said that Flying Dutchman,
.rotter under the saddle of the olden
lime, stepped twenty-five feet. If Mr..
Bonner should measure the stride of
Maud S. he would find it not less than
twenty feet.
The gated horse, next to the gallop-
ng gait. will be found to be the PAGER.
His reach is twenty feet when going his
best. A man, taking his size, outjumps
/ horse. 1t is well known, too, that
nan is superior in strength, endurance.
md agility to the horse. AS traveller,
nan holds the first place in the ranks
Of all animals that move over the sur
lace of the earth.
Ground mole excels all other animals
n strength, jaw, and shoulder. His
business is to cut roots and dig. He is
put together with reference to the very
kind of business we find him engaged
IN. If human beings were organized
and adapted to their occupations as
we'll as animals are to theirs we would
have more successful people in the
world than we now have. A battle be-
tween male moles generally ends with
the death of both animals, but such
lights are very trifiing compared with a.
flea fight. These insects strew the
ground with each others limbs. An
by the microscope of flea
after battle shows what these diminu-
tive creatures are capable of doing.
No theory with which we are ac-
quainted accounts for the force we find
in different animals. But it is shown
that size is not the measure of the quail
ity of force.
In referring to animals of-peculiar
anatomical construction the '.possum"
is one of the most wonderful. He is of
the marsupal genus. e., with false
belly or pouch, wherein to suckle the
young and also place of safety for
them. The period of CESSATION of the
'possum is not known, for the reason
that it is claimed that the young ones
are voided directly into the pouch,
where they remain, and literally grow
on the teats of the mother. We
were informed by naturalist who
made dissection of female 'possum
that he found young ones about two
inches long fastened firmly on the teats;
so attached were they that dissection
had to be made to get them off. The
young ones are only weaned when
there is no longer room enough for
them in the pouch. They then make
their way outside, but in case of alarm
or emergency the little ones crawl in
side of the pouch, and are at once car
ried off by the mother.-Neso York
World.
A mans luminosity toward a political
opponent is sometimes SO bitter that it
does not cease even when the opponent