Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-10-31

uiainInotn, SOME VerteDr9 tndt once OeIOnReQ
| to whale, the humerus of an extinct species
Of hippopotamus, and SO on. In the closet are
what the owner calls his 'babies" -huge fossil
batrachians from Texas. which in life resem-
bled gigantic frogs with short tails. Each of
them was ten feet in length. and it may be sur
| missed that their jumping powers were some
| thing phenomenal. However, there is a much
bigger one down stairs which measured fifteen
feet These surprising creatures must have
been very plentiful at one time. judging from
| the quantity Of their remains that are dug up,
| and a few hundred thousand years ago they
| might have been seen hopping about all over
the region mentioned.
Another closet in the entry on the second
| floor contains a quantity of what is called in
Texas fossil brushwood." 1t Is dug up quito
| regarded as a curiosity, although the natives
| are not aware Of what it is In fact--namely. the
| spiny frills that grew like fms along the backs
| of giant Lizards which lived in the distant
reptiles that inhabited the world, being the an
cestors Of the saurians of the mesozoic, or age
| of reptiles, which came after. They grew to
be about fifteen feet in length, with spines four
| feet long, although their vertebr@ were no
bigger than a sleeps. There were related
species which had extraordinary back fins
with cross pieces like the masts and yard arms
| Of a ship. All of them were carnivorous and
| exceedingly fierce. The vast numbers OF them
| which existed anciently in Texas must have
IcuutIcu tuluRB utClutuIy unpledSant lOF most
other occupants OF that part OF the country.
THE SKULL OF HADRosAUR.
In the parlor is also the skull of a hadrosaur
about four times as big as that Of the largest
crocodile. When it was alive-from three to
| lizard was at least thirty feet long and stood
perhaps twenty feet high it waded kangaroo
fashion in its customary manner through the
ocean shadows and browsed upon the sea
weeds, which formed its diet. The skull has
| two very striking features. One is the teeth,
| still perfect, which are 1000 in number and
| are arranged in magazine fashion for grinding
| the vegetable food. No other sort of animal.
| living or dead, ever possessed SO extraordinary
| dentition. The other surprising point is the
| jaws, which are prolonged and shaped in front
like a ducks bill. fat and rounded, SO that they
could pick up kelp and such fodder in the
manner Of a pair Of enormous salad spoons
There is hardly room on the lower floor,
| however, for much besides the bones of the
| seventy-fo camar asaurus above referred to-
| The hallway, pantry and kitchen are OBJ
structed with great dry goods boxes containing
| sections of its backbone; the tail is stacked up
| all over the back yard. and the long neck and
| skull crowd the parlor as full as it will hold.
| A single vertebra Of the neck is three feet
| across and there are ten Of them. They, as
well as those Of the back. are all hollow and
| originally served, being filed with warm air
| from the lungs, as floats to support the body Of
the animal as it waded in water deep enough to
cover its back along the seashore. 1t also fed
| on seaweeds.
Some of the most interesting remains in the
| third-story back are those Of giant crocodiles
| of the mesozoic. Their skulls exhibit a yery
| interesting peculiarly, the nasal opening being
set back SO far as to be just in front of and al
| most between the eyes. This was a provision
| Of nature to enable the creatures to breathe
| while thrusting their shouts far down into the
mud, whence they pulled out with their teeth mud
| fishes, crustacea and invertebrate animals such
| as crinoids-the ''sea lilies" which, although
Of an animal nature, initiate most beautifully
| in their appearance the blossoms after which
they are named. Standing up against the wall
| in the same room Is q huge slab cut out of the
| solid rock. which Prof. Cope calls a garden Of
| stone lilies" This slab, in fact, was once a
portion Of the bottom Of the ocean, and a bed
| Of crinoids growing upon it became covered
over with a layer of mud. The mud preserved
| them, turning gradually to rock, and the re-
| ceding waters left this pretty flower garden
preserved for ages between the strata Of hill.
FOSSIL REMAINS OF PAST EPoCHs.
Piled up in boxes on every floor. stacked in
tn ecorners and scattered along the Railways, are
the fossil remains Of monstrous flying, SWIM
ming and armor-clad reptiles Of past epochs:
| likewise mammals enough to stock q score Of
more wonderful menageries than Baruum ever
| advertised and extinct birds in hocks. Among
| the curiosities are bones Of a newly discovered
| extinct bird that used once upon a time to
dwell in Patagonia. 1t was not less than ten
| feet high and had an enormous beak. One of the
| most precious relics in the whole collection is
| a little skull not bigger than a squirrels. Small
it is it has supplied to the satisfaction OF the
| evolutionist one Of the missing links in man 8
| descent, through marine worms and fishes,
reptiles coming after, and mammals being de-
| veloped from the latter stock in the course of
| ages. Anatomists classify animals by their
/ teeth more accurately than in any other way,
/ and the jaws of this small lemur, which con-
i meets the anthropoid apes, like the chimpanzee
and gorilla, with beasts not SO high in the scale
| of creation, are provided with dentition 50
astonishingly human-like that one might well
| imagine the teeth to be actually those of q
miniature man. Molars and incisors are shaped
| and placed in exactly tie same way, and the
CANNES, two in the upper jaw and two in the
lower, correspond perfectly with the human
type.
DEPOSITS FROM FOSSIL LAKE.
One of the most remarkable discoveries oil
fossils ever made is newly announced by Prof
Cope. 1t is great deposit Of bones of extinct
birds about small lake in the sage-brusl
desert Of central Oregon. Now, bird fossils are
very hard indeed to find, because their bonei
are SO light and fragile as to become easily
scattered, and their bodies foated when they
fell into the water, instead of sinking and be
| coming buried In the mud, SO that they were
gobbled and digested by alligators and various
other swimming animals OF carnivorous in
clination. But presumably because conditions
were more favorable than usual to their preser
walton, the bones Of the water fowl and othel
feathered creatures which formerly lived abou
this fossil lake. it 10 called, have been kept in
tact for centuries upon centuries, so that TO-DAY
there exists in that place the most wonderful
mine Of such treasures THAI il known in tn,
, world.
The bones are found under very uuusua
conditions, namely, scattered among the shift
ing sands about the shores Of the lake. insteat
Of being contained in matrix Of solid rock
A large part Of them are quite o. perfect a
when the fowls TO which they belong died ant
! left them behind. Their bodies became burie,
in the sandy bottom. where the receding waite
has left them high and dry. However, ther,
are several interesting points about the re
mains, apart from the mere antiquity Of tn
species they represent, many Of which are new
to the ornithologist. They prove that, in tn
time when these birds lived, that region, nov
! % cold comparatively. was tropical. ANON