Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1900-12-24
ANCIENT MONSTERS
ANIMALS THAT
SCIENCE RECONSTRUCTED.
TRUE DRAGONS OF THE PAST
Reptiles of Appalling Magnitude aho
Shape That Inhabited the Earth
During it's Early History. huge
Creatures of Today not in it win
the Past.

A writer in Pearson's furnishes
some graphic and incidentally mar
raising data concerning prehistoric
monsters.
The plesiosaurus was strange
marine monster. To the head OF
lizard it united the teeth OF cIoco-
die, long neck like that OF ser
pent. the ribs Of a chameleon and the
paddles of a whale. 1t was carnlV-
orous and over % feet in length.
Passing over strange forms of rep
tiles of appalling magnitude, with
many of the features Of modern quad
rupeds, was of so novel and starting
character as to require even the
prestige of his name to obtain for II
any degree of credence.
They comprised the largest ter
lrestrial and semi-aquatic reptiles that
ever lived. They all possessed TOUR
| limbs, but the front limbs and hands
were often remarkably small in COM
/ DdTlSOu
of them frequently walked on their
hind legs. They varied alike in size
and appearance to an extraordinary
degree. Many of them wore de-
fensive armor of bony plates, some
had spines, others horns; some were
vegetable feeders, other carnivorous.
The Thunder Lizard.
The brontosaurus, or Thunder Llz-
ard" so named on account of it's size
by the late Prof. O. c.. Marsh. OF
America (who discovered this and
scores of other new Beasts, measured
nearly SO feet in length. Professor
Marsh calculated that it's live weight
was about twenty tons! 1t will give
the reader some idea of the size OF
this colossal monster when we say
that in walking Cor making tracks"
to use colloquial expression) every
track of the hind feet was one
square yard in extent. Professor
Marsh obtained casts of the brain
cavity, which was but small, and
therefore the beast was certainly a
stupid one. 1t was probably amphibi-
Gus and vegetarian in diet
But larger still was the great fatlan-
tosaurus a close relation. Unfortu-
nate1y not much of his skeleton is
known, but this much we know-that
thighbone measured 6 feet 2 inches
in length. The creature that owned it
may have attained length of over
80 feet, and most certainly have
rather closely resembled the bronto-
saurus. The dinosaurs spread over a
large part of the world, becoming
very numerous and powerful
Another famous member of this
order was the megalosaurus, carniv-
orous type. It's large limb bones
contained cavities, or were otherwise
heightened, in order to give the
feet capable of free and rapid move
ment. With length of perhaps 80
feet capable of rec and rapid move
ment on land, with powerful hind
limbs, short head, with long, pointed
teeth and formidable claws to it's
feet, the megalosaurus must have been
without rival among carnivorous
reptiles in Eurasia at least. It prob
ably walked on it's hind legs. The
late Professor Hauxley was much i'm
pressed with the birdlike character
of some parts of the skeleton.
The triassic sandstone of the Con
necticut valley in North America has
long been famous for it's fossil foot
prints, especially the so-called bird
tracks" generally supposed to have
been made by birds. A careful in
vestigation convinced Professor Marsh
that they were made not by birds, but
by reptiles in spite of their apparently
bird-like character. The hind feet
of some dinosaurs showed marvellous
likeness to those of ostriches as in the
case of the iguanodon.
The InIIanodnn