The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-03-13
REPTILES OF AGES GONE BY.
Monsters Which Walk the Earth anc
Swan the Sea Long Ago.

Swan the Sea Long Ago.
From the Washington Star
Reptiles. as they are found in the world
at the present day, are but degenerated
survivors of their kind as they existed in
epochs long ago." said Prof. Cope to a
writer for the Star. 1.-THE first reptiles of
the world made their appearance at the
close of the Daleozoic period, when the coal
was in process of formation. They were
all land animals. Among them there were
no flying creatures, no marine swimmers,
no gigantic types and no especially her
bivorous kinds
'At the close of the conforming period
there occurred great emergence of land
from the water, and reptilian life rapidly
spread and grew. The reptiles which had
previously existed were Gil of one kind.
Their remains are found in this country
wherever the deposits in lagoons, lakes and
estuaries have boon calculated for their pre-
servation. From this point Of time, how
ever, what may appropriately be called the
epoch Of reptiles. The paleozoic period was
brought TO close by a great upheaval, due
to contraction of the earths crust, by
which the Alleghenles and the Ural system
were uplifted. Then began what is called
the 'mesozoic epoch during which the
reptiles may be said to have run creation.
That is to say, t3ey were the highest order
of beings at that time alive What man is
now the reptile was then-that is, lord Of
all existing things. Reptiles walked upon
land, navigated the water, few through the
air, and, in short. pursued every avenue of
existence that is Zoologically conceivable.
early in the nesozoic epoch there ap-
peared marine reptiles which, though de-
rived from land species, became more and
more aquatic through the necessity Of living
in water, developing on that account swim
ming organs, etc. Land reptiles also began
to develop in huge proportions. Why they
| grew so big no one knows, but 1t may have
been because they had no rivals in the strug-
| gle for existence; they had all they wanted
to eat and naturally increased in bulk. AT
| all events, no creatures are known to have
ever existed in this world comparable in
size to these reptiles of ages ago.
CLIMBING REPTILES.
"What the mammals are in the scale of
creation to-day the reptiles were in the
mesozoic epoch. They swan the seas,
| climbed trees aud were most phenomenal
| jumpers Some OF them even few. While
some of them were herbivorous, living
| upon plants, others were carnivorous, pre-
serving existence by devouring their vege-
table eating cousins. The vegetarian rep
| tiles were enormous beasts, often as much
as seventy feet in length. They afforded
| food for the carnivorous reptiles, which
| were smaller than the herblvoroDS kind,
| Just as lions and tigers nowadays are
smaller than oxen. Though bigger the
vegetarian creatures usually had not ar
NOR nor weapons to defend themselves with.
The most powerful defense was a kick,
| which, delivered with a hind leg fifteen
feet in length, was assuredly not by any
means to be despised at. The herblvoroas
reptiles of that epoch were mainly of three
| descriptions:
First was the biggest of all animals
known to the world from the beginning
thereof to the present day. Its name was
the 'camarasaurus.' IL went on all tours
and the vertebrae composing its backbone
were hollow-mere shells in fact-flled with
warm air from the luugs, just as is the case
with the bones of some birds to-day. I'M
| doubtedly it lived in the sea, walking along
in water deep enough to cover its back. Ii
| fed upon the vegetation along shore and
its neck was long and crane-like.
Other herbivorouS reptiles of the same
period had enormously long hind legs. on
which they we're able to wade far out into
deep water after sea weeds and other food.
These creatures were particularly eXtraor-
binary in point of their dental equipment
! inasmuch as each of them had about 1900
grinders to chew with, arranged in maya
zines of 500 each, like cartridges.
Another species of herbivorous reptiles
lived upon land, but they were so power
fully armed that they were able to Oppose
a formidable defense against attack. Some
Of them had huge horns on their heads
like bulls, while others bore similar weapons
above the r noses, like rhinoceri of to-day.
So well able were they TO defend themselves
tAat they lived and multiplied in the sans