Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-05-09
BEASTS OF LONG AGO.
Strange Creatures That Walked the
Earth Before Mans Day.
MONSTERS IN THE OCEAN.
When Flying Dragons Were . Rsality-And
Really Truly Sea Serpents Inhabited the
Oceans-Monsters Being Devoursd By Rag-
ger Monstsrs Than Themselves.

serpents?" said a scientific enthusiast the other
day to writer for THE SrAR. "Of course, such
creatures did exist once upon o time.
as palaontologists have demonstrated by
digging up their bones, and so It is
seen that the supposed myths respect
ing them have actually a basis in fact. modi-
fed by tradition. In order to find this world
enjoyable at that epoch. however, we must
have been equipped with the mostimproved Of
modern weapons. and prepared with every
possible defense against these and other mon
sters which swarmed over the earth and ran
creation before man gained a foothold upon
this subiunary sphere.
without adequate means for protection Ii
would have been most severely unpleasant to
encounter one of the gigantic winged lizards,
bat like OF aspect. of the mcsozoic ags, ~hich
had spread OF twenty-five feet from tip +. Tip.
They were, presumably, the originals of the
tabled dragons and were formidable enough to
render 1t easy for the early human imagina-
ton to attribute to them n breath of fire and
various other unpleasant characteristics. Prob
ably they were often far bigger than have
suggested. inasmuch rs skulls of one species
have been found which measure more than four
feet in ienSth-the crania alone, mind You
creatures OF this description and of such o size
nave only been found on this continent. A
single specimen, dead. would have covered O
large part OF an acre lot
THE SEA SERPENT.
III man had been trying to secure livelihood
from the ocean during the sa,ne epoch he would
nave been likely to encounter with unpleasant
frequency certain marine reptiles of long and
snake-hke body which correspondent quite
nearly with the serpents of modern news
paper story. One species attained length Of
eighty feet, with long tail that was a powerful
swimming aDnaratuS and hal iarv
constructed as to admit OF opening the mouth
to an enormous width somewhat AS in snakes
OF the present day, which are thus enabled to
swallow animals OF greater thickness than
themselves. Bony plates provided the animal
with a defensiver arlnor
I'm that era also there were gigantic nevis
that measured five feet and more in length
and the skeleton of such q one was mistaken
In 1881 by Swiss physician named Scheuchzer,
who published dissertation en- the subject
for the remains of one Of the human. beings
that persisted at the time Of the deluge from
which Noah and his family are said to have
saved themselves. Contemporary with these
monster safamcnders, the miniature descend
ants OF which are found today in springs and
streams. were land tortoises that reached the
enormous length Of twenty feet from the end
OF the snout TO the tip of the tail and the backs
OF whose shells were seven feet above the
ground as they crawied. Some Of the tradi-
mons OF the Hindoos would seem to indicate
that these extraordinary animals had survived
into the earlier portion of the human period.
TIE GREAT FISH LIZARD.
"Among the most common of the animals Of
that period were the great fish lizards, resemb-
ling both lizards and fishes, which had heads
like alligators and swimming paddles like those
OF the turtle. They grew to be 40 feet in length
and lived In the seas, though occasionally they
came on shore. 1t is known, from the contents
Of their petrifed droppings. which are plenti-
fully found to this day, that they fed upon fish.
They Owed to great depths In the ocean and
were most rapacious and predatory. They had
enormous eyes to see with in deep water and
may be set down as among the most formidable
OF the reptiiian tyrants of that age. The plesio-
saurs were contemporaries in large numbers of
the fish reptiles, fnhabiting the seas near land
and preying upon the fishes of the shoals
They had fippers. too, were lizard-iIke, with
shorter tails, and did not usually exceed twenty
feet in length.
HUGE CREATURES on LAND.
snow. while the seas of the mesozoic epoch
swarmed with these mighty lizards from twenty
to eighty feet in length, and the air was ten
anted by dragon-like reptiles with vast expand
ing wings. the land those portions of the con-
tinents which had then arisen ont OF the ocean.
was inhabited by creatures equally huge and
formidable. There was the giant lizard. mega
losaur, which attained the prodigious length of
fifty feet and was fierce in proportion to its
bulk. 1t did not hesitate to attack any OF its
rivals in that age Of reptiles not even the cetio-
saur, which was hardly matched in magnitude
and physical strength by the biggest of its con-
temporaries on land or sea. Standing, the ma
jestic cetiosaur was not less than ten feet in
height, with length Of fifty-five or sixty feet.
But it was peaceful animal, DWELL
ing in the marshes and by the river
sides and feeding upon vegetable
food. It could not successfully contend
against the more active and incredibly fero-
cious megalosaur, nor with the agile ieiaps.
which, though only forty feet in length. was so
equipped with hind legs like those OF the mod
ern kangaroo making 1t the most tremendous
jumper that ever existed. and with teeth for
biting as well as sharp claws to scratch its ad-
versary's eyes out with, as to be able to over
come in single combat almost any foe The
largest of these monstrous beasts were vegeta-
BILE feeders and upon them the carniverous rep
tiles preyed- Thus the elasmosaurs though
growing to q length OF seventy feet, fen easy
victims while browsing on the seaweeds along
tue coast shadows to the terrible 'demosaurs,'
which walked often if not habitually upon their
hind legs, looking about them for victims and
leaping upon the latter with merciless tee til and
claws.
LIKE TRUE BIRDS.
ut is interesting to remark that the skel-
etons Of these demosaurs, which walked up on
fhatr ind feat sla Ca