Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1898-12-22
THE DlNOSAUR or WYOMING
Fortified Bones of a Colossal
Animal Unearthed.
WAS ABOUT 1870 FEET IN LENGTH
Thirty-five Feet High at Hips
and % at Shoulders.
He Had Neck so Feet In Length and n Tail
That Measured 60 Feet-1hs Fortified
skeieton Alone win Weigh 40, 600 Pounds
"A Great Find for The Wyoming Univer-
ssty.
Laromio Cor. 81. Louis elope.pomocrat.

Laramie Cor ST. LOUIS 6lope-DemocrhL
Wyoming is writing a strange chap
ter in the worlds geological history.
The big sage brush commonwealth is
scoring record breaker in fossil forma
tions by unearthing the petrified bones
of the most colossal animal ever taken
from the earth's stratas. This stone
monster was dweller in the Jurassic
age-a dinosaur, measuring nearly 100
feet in length, and being perhaps 30
feet in height at the hips and 20 feet
at the shoulders-an animal so terrible
in size that its petrified skeleton alone
is believed to weigh more than 10000
pounds.
Assistant Professor W. H. Reed of
the department of geology of Wyoming
State University is its discoverer. Ho
made the great find while prospecting
for fossils 80 miles northwest of Lara
mic last August; and since that time
the geological department of the Uni
versity has been secretly at work IN its
restoration. So vast is the skeleton of
the animal that its smallest bone yet
found is more than man can lift, and
with two men in the field constantly Mt
work it is believed that many months
may be required before the monster can
be placed on the campus at Laramie.
In comparison to mammoth, this
animal was in size as a horse is to a
dog. In the known fossil world there
is but one creature that can ever serve
in an approximate comparison with it,
and this would be only as a child
beside it. Prof o. G.. Marsh's famous
brontossaur at the Yale Museum at
New Haven is its only animal criterion
of measurement. This was a creature
of its own kind and time--a fellow
creature in Wyoming, where for mil
lions of years they have slept together
in the same graveyard to be finally
resurrected by the same ghoul Of science
Prof. Reed. The skeleton at Yale
was restored in 1879 by Prof. Reed,
under the direction of Prof. Marsh.
This monster is believed to have beer
about 20 feet in length, ard in life tc
have weighed, perhaps. so, 900 pounds
the new discovery in Wyoming eclipsinf
it in this respect by probably more
than 10000 pounds. This animal wai
perhaps % feet in height at the hip.
and 16 feet at the shoulders. Its femul
alone is slightly more than 6 feet il
length, while the femur of the ANNA
now being resurrected in nearly O
quite feet in length. A measurement
of its lumbar vertebr9 across the cen
trum is ID inches. while correspond
ing vertebra of the fossil recently dis
covered is over 16 inches in simila
measurement. From.the bones disin
tered, the dinosaur in Wyoming, il
comparison to the one at Yale, is il
size about as three is to two.
The body of the dinosaur is compare
lively short, but extremely thick
Prof. Reed, in conjecturing as to tn
probable appearance in life of the ami
NAL that he is restoring, said:
IAN accurate idea of a living dino
saur is practically out of the question
According to my opinion, should sa
that the animal now being brought t
light would weigh in life about 60 tons
that he had neck 80 feet in length
and tail perhaps 60 feet in length
His ribs are about feet in length an
the cavity of his body, with lungs an
entrails out, would make hall "a fet
in length, 16 feet in width, and archie
over probably II feet in height. Sue
space, if properly arranged, woul
seat at least 40 people. A round stea
taken from ham Of the animal woul
have been at least 10 feet in diamete
or more than 30 feet in circumferene
and would have had solid bone
the middle, 12x14 inches, with no he
low for marrow. A set of tours
cavalry could easily have ridden abrea
between his front and hind legs, pr
vided he had not objected. Every tin
he put his foot down it covered mo
than a square yard of ground, al
must have fairly shaken the cart
The smallness of the head Of this an
NAL is a peculiar thing. / should S;
that the head of this mighty dinosa
was probably not larger than 10-gall
keg. He must have been very slu
gish creature, as the brain cavity wou
certainly not warrant the belief. til
his brain weighed to exceed 4 Oh
pounds. {