Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1900-12-20

uncouth monster, therefore, flourished
IN America at the same time that Eng
liNh chalk was being laid down Gas
soft ooze) in the cretaceous sea. The
beast, which was % feet long. is so
named because it had three horns on
its face. Its skull was truly enormous,
being over feet long.
Flying Reptiles.
Among the reptiles OF visit geolog-
lists call the earths Secondary Era
were the pterodactyls, an order which
actually acquired the power of flying.
These wing fingered creatures had a
thin membrane stretching over their
fingers but the outer or little finger
was very much longer than the other
three, because it supported the outer
rim of this flying membrane. This
organ was not a wing in the scientific
sense of the word any more than is
the wing of a bat Both are simply
flying membranes"
These extraordinary, dragon-like
reptiles differed very much both in
size and in shape; some We're no big
ger than sparrows while others APP
parently-to judge from fragmentary
remains-measured % feet across
when the flying membranes were fully
stretched out, The first skeleton of
| 1884 greatly puzzled Collini, who
thought it might be an amphibian, But
it came into Cuyier's hands in 1909
| His genius told him that the bones be
| longed to a reptile endowed with pow
ers of flight and it was he who chris
tened the beast pterodactyL
Until the oracle at Paris was con.
suited the greatest uncertainty pre-
vailed. one naturalist regard az it as
| a bird another as a bat. Cuvier
thought, from the magnitude of their
eyes, that pterodactyls were of noe.
| turnal habits with focks of such
! creatures flying in the air and shoals
of no less monstrous ichthyoosauri
and plesiosauri swarming in the ocean
and gigantic crocodiles and tortoises
crawling on the shores of the primeval
lakes and rivers, air, sea and land
must have been strangely tenanted in
| these early periods of our infant
world he says. Some had sharp teeth
and others none at all.
The Meeatherium.
But we must leave these and many
other strange types of bygone days
and pas on to the Tertiary Era, when
mammals were the reigning type, as
they are now. In the Natural History
Museum, London, may be seen the
cast OF skeleton standing nearly
erect and grasping a tree. 1t meas
ures Is feet in height and the bones
are more massive than those of the
elephant. The thigh bone, for in
stance, is three times as thick as that
of an elephant. All the bones are i'm.
mensely strong and especially adapted
for the firm attachment of powerful
muscles.
The megatherium, for such is the
name OF the monster, was great
ground sloth. At the present day
sloths, as we know them, are nc
|
but this one lived on the ground
haunting South American forests II
was probably contemporary with
man. So great was its strength that
as owen showed by a process OF mas
terly reasoning, it could pull down
a big tree and then proceed to devour
the leaves at its leisure.
But no prehistoric monster holds
a greater fascination for the public
mind today than the mylodon-an
other member of the sloth family and
a contemporary of the megatherium
For the astounding theory has recent
ly been put forward that the nylodor
still exists in South America.
Or. Moreno's Recent Discovery.
South America has always been fa
vorite hunting ground for palaeontolo
gists and many interesting deposits Of
fossil remains have been brought tC
light It was while exploring in Pata
gonia. a practically unknown land
that DR. Moreno, OF the La Plata Mu
scum, made discovery which may
! prove one Of the most astounding 81
recent times
Near the entrance to a huge cave
he found a piece of dried skin hanging
on a tree which was quite unlike tho
skin Of any other animal he knew. II
was covered with coarse, greehish
brown hair and contained several
small bones A search in the cave
brought to light much larger frag
ments of the skin, together with
bones. skull and teeth: relies, prob
ably, of the same animal.
Neighborlng natives suggested that
the remains were probably those OF
! some enormous seal, while Others
thought that the skin was the skin OF
COW But Or. Moreno, after exami
nation. came to the conclusion that II
could not belong to any animal known
TO be living, and the precious relies
were finally classified as those OF the
/ giant sloth The akin ia now in tho