The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-03-12

%AEontAc DdI, Win the dQQeQ horror OF an
unslghrly bill Of great length and bulge 1t
must he noted also that the most Of these
creatures had the power of walking on all
fours with the wings folded alongside. Ger
tainly nothing could be more uncanny
than the sight of a lot of creatures, each
about the size of huge dog, walking along
the earth and all at once rising on their
mind legs, spreading a great expapse of sail
on either side and making of through the
air.
II
But the most amazing types Of this re-
mote period called the mesozoic age and the
age Of reptiles were the dinosaurs The
vigorous fancy OF primitive man conjured
some frightful shapes of dragon and beast.
But nature far outran imagination when
she contrived the mighty members of this
strange family. AS the dinosaurs were rep
tiles they no doubt had all the revolving
characteristics, the small intelligence, the
cunning, the undulating motions and the
ferocious mslignity. These things make
the snakes and crocodiles and alligators OF
to-day the most generally dreaded and
Stunned Of created things, the horror Of
man and beast alike. While there were,
as has been shown, reptiles in this mesozcic
age that cast into insignificance all known
reptiles, these in turn were preyed upon by
the great dinosaurs.
The dinosaurs belonged in almost every
part of the world. Their skeletons are found
wherever rocks of the mesozoaic age have
been turned up, and they, like all created
things, were adapted to the peculiar condi-
tions by which they were surrounded.
While some were closely allied to the sea
serpents, sea lizards and fish lizards, others
resembled various mammals, and still others
were so nearly akin to such birds as the os-
Fri and ha Nhak hs,II
that these birds are the descendants OF dino
saurs. Mr.. Hutchinson classes them under
three divisions, the lizard-footed dinosaurs,
the beast-footed dinosaurs and the bird
footed dinosaurs. The division is based
upon the appearance of the tracks left In
the soft soil of that day, which hardened
into stone and thus preserved the impress
sions to u.s. The first of the lizard-footed
dinosaurs, which Mr.. Hutchinson considers
is the brontosaurus, a egetable-feeding
lizard that was. on the average. sixty feet
long and must have weighed at least twenty
tons.
The small size of its brain cavity shows
that it was stupid, slow-moving creature.
1t had no covering of scales or spines, and
no offensive abilities, apparently. In the
opinion of Prof. Marsh it was more or less
amphibious and fed upon aquatic plants.
He notes that its remains are generally
found where it had in all probability be-
come mired. Many Of its tracks are pre-
served, some of these footprints being a
square yard in extent. For its defense
against enemies it Is possible that its great
tail could be swung with force, and it is
probable that those mighty thigh bones,
which often were six feet long and more,
had muscles of great power bound to them,
by means of which terrific kick or blow
could be delivered. While sixty feet was
its average length, there have been found
skeletons of this kind of dinosaur that must
have been over eighty feet long. From the
peculiar structure of the head and fore
quarters, it is assumed that they sometimes
sat upright upon their launches. In such
a position a dinossur eighty feet long would
have been thirty feet high, or as high as a
modern 3-story house.
The secand group Of dinosaurs, the beast
footed we're net so large as the first group,
and were entirely different in their habits.
They were the lions and tigers Of their age,
fierce, rRvenous beasts of prey. Their skele-
tons show most plainly that they were con-
structed for bouncing upon other animals
and tearing them to pieces. These dinosaurs
walked on their hind legs most of the time,
holding their short forelegs in the air
somewhat after the fashion of the kangaroo.
Their bones were hollow and the foretoot Of
the body was trivial compared to the
launches. Their average length was about
25 feet, and the distance between their
tracks, which would mean the length of
their step, was about or feet. Each track
was about 20 inches long.
The third group Of dinosaurs, the bird
footed, is the most interesting, and is the
last discovered by science OF these the
first to come to light was the iguanadOn, a
mighty smooth-skinned creature, 30 feet
long or more. II levied upon the leaves of
trees and walked upon its hind feet, this
despite the fact that its body was far larger
than the body of the largest elephant.
Another of this same general family was
the scelidosaurus, noted for the immense
power of It's hind legs. In size it was. In all
probability, about the same as the iguane-
don. 1t had spiEes and plates Of armor
u on It's back, which kept off the foe if the
hind legs were not available. A swish from
its tail was like cut from lash OF netGles
The poacanthus, near relation probably
of the scelidosaurus, was still better pro-
tected, for it had its loi0s and launches
guarded by a continuous shield of bone
which rose at regular intervals into sharp
spikes
But the most curiously armored creature
that has ever been discovered was the sego-
saurus which was native of the western
part of this country in the mesozoic aye.
Projecting from the back were bony plates
from two to three feet in diameter, and its
spines the most powerful animal Splnes
ever found, were sometimes over two feet
long. This creature had two brains, one in
its small head and the other in the
launches. The second brain no doubt had
the business of directing the movements Of
the great headquarters, and when neces-
sary. the swinging OF that mighty tail with
it's four pairs of strong, sharp spines. This
kind of creature was, it is believed, thirty
feet long and upward. Its weight must
have Teen very great. and its hight was
certainly that of an ordinary elephant
At the close OF his last chapter on dino
saurs Mr.. Hutchinson introduces a sketch
of a great bird that lived 10 this age Of rep
tiles, and that was in all probability related
TO the dinosaurs. This bird is called the
gigantic diver, its length being feet. 1t
is most interesting to US. because it was as
suredly bird It also had teeth, a rare
thing among birds of this strange mesozoic
age. Not one toothed bird has survived.
There we're many points OF resemblance be-
tween birds and reptiles as they were
known in this mesozoic period, however
little there may be nowadays.
III.
From the monsters of tee age Of reptiles
to the monsters that made terrible the land
scapes in the age of mammals is long
STEP and not satisfactory one from the