Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-07-04

| the bulk Of ak or eight elephants? Neverthe-
less. some Of the heroivorous land reptiles re-
| ferred to- like the gigantic horned and armored
ssathaumas," could make q good fight with
the carnivores and were 30 we'll able TO defend
themselves that they lived and multiplied in
the same regions with the latter. But most Of
these vegetable feeders had no other means Of
defense than kicking. which they could do
with some effectiveness with their hinder limbs
nfteen feet or so in length.
WHEN REPTILES RAN CREATION.
Specimens Of all these are included in the
collection that is to be brought here for per-
manent exhibition OF course they represent
but few Of the countless species Of giant beasts
that roamed over the earth In droves during
this vanished epoch. That was the age when
reptiles ran creation. They walked upon land.
trees and did every thing that mammals do nowa-
DAYS. There were bird reptiles and reptilian
birds. Some had wings for flying with a spread
or twenty-five feet-veritable dragons. in fact.
otners. forty feet in length, had pa idles for
swimming like q whales. These latter lived in
the seas, though occasionally they came on
snore. 1t is known from their petrifed drop
pings. which arc plentifully found TODAY, that
they lived upon fish. One species Owed to
great depths in the ocean, and WAS most rapa-
cious and predatory. 1t had enormous eyes to
see with In deep water. its head resembling
an ailSators. Another kind. with
very long neck. inhabited the shoals
anu proved upon the fishes of the shall
lows. The first serpents, too, belonged in the
sea SEE ana grew to he forty feet long. They had
no poison, but were constructors, like the boa.
mere were many kinds of crocodiles fifty feet
from snout TO tail whereas the biggest ones
now are not more than fifteen feet During
tne same period lived the birds with teeth
Biggest OF these was the ..hesperornis." which
stood SIX feet high and had only rudimentary
wings IL did not fy. therefore but was sim
Rls swimmer and diver, subsisting on fish.
me lchthyornis was somewhat similar in APP
pearance and habits. bat not much larger than
pigeon. IL Is supposed that these strange
water FOWL were wiped out by the giant swim
ming lizards. eighty feet long and clad In bony
arhior plates winch resem5led the modern con-
cepilon OF the sea serpent. The turtles should
hot re forgotten, which attained n length of
twenty Ieet anu measured seven feet in height.
THE AGE OF FISHES.
1t is not only the age of reptiles. however.
that Is represented by the unparalleled collec-
ton described. Before that came the epoch of
fishes, when they ran the world and had all Gre
ation pretty much to themselves. or this era
likewise tine government has gathered together
vast quantity of fossil relics. The face of the
earth did not look then at all as it appears now
host OF what are now called the continents had
not peen apheayed above the ocean; nearly
everywhere was sea. with comparatively small
ia'id masses elevated out of it. The atmos-
phere was hot. moist and loaded with carbonic
acid SO as to be unbreathable. In the waters
swami enormous armored Ash, such as the
ainlchthys, which WAS fifteen feet long and
mad such tremendous jaws and teeth that it
coaiu nave bitten man in two as easiiT as YOU
would radish. Later on came sharks of the
nercest type. which must have been as much as
seventy feet in length at least. The biggest
tooth OF a man-eater of today is about an inch
long, while the teeth of these ancient sharks
winch are found in enormous numbers meas
ure more than six inches. That was the golden
age OF the scaly tribe.
Inc giant reptiles that appeared on the scene
~ 'ne sI.osequent epoch were remarkable for
the smaliness of their brain cavities In some
OF them the brain was SO small that IL couId
nave Oeen passed without injury through all
the fertebr& OF the spinal column down as far
as the beginning OF the tail. All Of these were
miPea OUT OF existence by the great cataclysm
which upheaved the Rocky mountains, the
Alps and the Himalayas and brought to q close
the 'mesoZoic epoch" Then came the age of
mammals, at the end of which we are now, man
being the last arrival on the scene
MONSTERS PASSING AWAY.
The age OF monsters has pretty nearly passed
away. only few remaining like the elepbant
and the whale. Small animals with plenty OF
sense VIII always survive stupid giants in the
iohg run, because they require less food and
know better how TO avoid danger. Observe in
illustration how the doom OF extinction has
fallen upon the gigantic mammals which
roamed over the earth by myriads ONLY SO short
a time ago. comparatively speaking. as the be-
ginning OF the present era called the ..ce-
noxoic There was the ''dinoceras." which
nved In nerds about the lakes. as the deposits
showing as an elephant, but in appearance
somewhere between the rhnoceros and the
hippopotamus. with three pairs of horns on lis
mead and huge saber-ilke tusks that
nt.eu into sheaths in the lower jaw. More
imposing yet was the "tinoceras.' somewhat
similar of aspect and sixteen feet long Not
less impressive was the ..megatherium" or
giant sloth, as large as two elephants. which At
tained measurement of eighteen feet and pro-
cured the leaves on which il fed by seating it.
self upon its mighty haunches and uprootina
great trees. OF the .'dinotherium'' no com.
piete skeleton has been discovered, but il WAS
doubtless the biggest land mammal that ever
lived full-groga skull OF this earliest of
probosc:dians, which had long tusks as well as
a trunk, mea ,ures five feet from the point of
the lower teeth to the top OF the head The
orontops. OF elephantine size. had a head
ike a rninoceroS with huge horns Qnite as re-
marAaoie was the ''sivatherium' a bess; like an
antelope, but big as an elephant with two conical
horns on tbs front of its head and two i'm
mensc spreading ones behind. Among birds
were waders. ten feet in height, such as the
"dinornis and ''gastonns." Contemporary
with them were the mammoth and the mastodon.
the woo.ly rhinoceros. nrmadillos nine feet in
length and the saber-toothed tiger larger than
the greatest lion of today All that Is LEFT ~
these wonders OF ANNA! life is found in de-
posts such As those of the western lake beds
or years the government has been engaged in |
their bones, which are now to make
part OF what is destined to be the greatest
geological show eartn.
u