The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-12-11

they were found in such abundance and
variety that many interesting facts could
be con1eetured concerning their appear
ance and habits. Among others, Prof o.
G. Marsh Of Yale College has done much
IN restoring the external form of these an
imals. From a set Of bones somewhat In
complete, Prof Marsh made restora-
ton Of a complete skeleton, and a fierce
looking animal il was. 1 am speaking
now of the largest species. But formida-
bic as IL was I am afraid Prof. Marsh did
not go far enough He did not make his
animal long enough. A skeleton which
we aug up during the past summer was
actually much longer than MaTshs COM
putatiOn. Instead OF seventy feet. as was
supposed. l find the animal really reached
a length or probably ninety feet Quite
monster Well, look at the pevis over
there by the window. That Is not much
more than half OF IT, yet II is larger than
four Hour barrels. Here is the femur, or
thigh bone, broken into three sections. See
II you can lift one of them? Better sull,
l viii have the whole bone put together,
and you can get some idea of its size
He called to his assistants and they,
with some strainng. placed the three sec
tons OF the femur together, standing the
bone on end. 1t was as thick as the
smokestack of a locomotive, quite as
black and about six feet high. The great
knob on the end of the bone where il fit,
ted into the socket of the pelvis looked
like the polished newell post OF a great
iron balustrade.
Habits of the Gigantic Dinosaurs
There were numbers OF species of these
animals" continued Dr. Workman. Some
of them were herbivorous and manifestly
they fed on the vegetable growths of the
seaside; others were carnivorous and with
out doubt preyed on The herbivorous va
riety. Yet the vegetable feeders were vast
iy greater in size than their blood-thirsty
relatives, ! viii mention only a few spe-
c.es, for, after all, il is the animal as a
class that is of popular interest. The bron-
tosaurus 1--WE have one on exhibition here
in the museum) was sixty-two feet long
It's tail alone was twenty-six feet long, its
high bone five feet ten inches long This
thigh bone, by Inc way, alone weighs 90
pounds. The animal when alive is est-
mated to have weighed at least fifty tons;
that is, over 100000 pounds Probably it
was stupid, slow-moving animal. It's
small brain and slender spinal cord would
seem to indicate this, as Prof. Marsh has
pointed out. Probably also it was without
offensive or defensive weapons. According
10 its skeleton it was a great lozeuge-
shaped animal, as far as its actual body
went, with a long snake-like head and
tail very much alike, as. far as their di-
minishing shape was concerned. We
know il was a semi-aquauc animal from
the cartilagenous indications of the ankle
joints. An animal with such soft pads
in its lower legs would need some sustain
ing power like water 10 hold up the tons
of weight in its body. Probably II stood
for some time on land each day, but il
must have had the water to retire to when
necessary, otherwise the soft pad-lilxe
structures of its legs must soon have be-
come ossified into very hard bone.
Besides this big reptile there are many
varieties, among which 1 may mention the