Los Angeles herald., 1905-11-26
THE REAL KING
OF ALL BEASTS
HIS BONES DUG OUT OF THE
MONTANA ROCKS
Remains of the King Of Tyrant sau-
rians, the Largest Flesh-Eat-
ing Animal, Past or
Present

NEW YORK, NOV. 25.-Out or the
rocks in Northern Montana scientists
have dug the skeleton of the real king
Of beasts. An expedition sent out by
the American Museum of Natural
History in New York has just report
ed the resurrection of the largest
fesh-eating land animal thus far
known to the world. This constitutes
one of the most remarkable finds in
the recent history of paleontology.
The curator of the department oil
vertebrate paleontology of this mu-
scum, Professor Henry f. osborne, un-
der whose direction the expedition was
sent out has conferred upon this new
1y discovered monster the title "Ty-
rannosaurus Rex" In plain English
this means the "Tyrant King Saurian,
or the king of Tyrant Saurians.
At the presnt moment the remains or
this denizen of the past are being
shipped to New York in number OF
carefully made boxes, some of the
boxes weighing over two tons. When
these old bones arrive, they Will be
examined and cleaned with as much
care as If they were full of diamonds
for to science this discovery is more
important than that of a great many
diamonds. A large force of skilled
workmen will be detailed to the job,
every DOne Will De pldCeQ III llS plopSi
place in the skeleton, missing bones
will be modelled out of plaster of Paris,
and in q few months the completed
skeleton will be placed on exhibition
in the halls of the museum where Vis-
1tors may come and see what this king
OF beasts few million years ago was
like.
Was Thlrty-Nine Feet Long
Enough parts of this animal have
been found to make it possible to es-
innate quite exactly what his size was.
From the end of his tail to the front
of his nose he probably measured
about thirty-nine feet. The distance
from his skull, as normally poised. to
the ground would be about nineteen
feet-more than three times the height
of an ordinary human skeleton. A
drawing showing the comparative sizes
of the Tyrannosaurus Rex and the hui
man skeleton has been placed on ex-
hibtion In the museum. The difference
is shown to be about like that between
an ostrich and an ordinary barnyard
hen. The present restoration is, how
ever entirely preliminary.
OF such Importance to science is this
discovery that it has necessitated a
reclassification of the carnivorous di-
nosaurS of the cretaceouS geological
period. Tyrannosaurus now becomes
the name of a new genus. These flesh
eating dinosaurs of the latter part of
Ine age OF repIlleS now snow themselves
to have been far more diversified than
had been supposed. The particular
hobby of these creatures seems to have
been to make life miserable for all
herbivorous dinosaurs of the period
One of the newly named forms is
that of the dynamosaurs-"power
lizards 1t seems that their particu-
lar prey was the duck billed dinosaur
or Iguanodont. The Iguanodonts were
partly protected from attack by bony
plates located along the sides of the
body. Another interesting family was
the ornithomimidae-"b mimck-
ers,' who We're relatively small but ex-
tremely swift-footed.
Foe of the Triceratops
But for real bigness and other ter
rifyinG qualities Mr.. Tyrannosaurus
undoubtedly took the prize. He was
large and strong enough to attack the
great three-horned Triceratops. one Of
the most interesting of the Dinosaur
family, a fine skeleton of which has re-
Gently been set up in the national
museum at Washington. This animal
had skull which projected upward
over the neck like a firemans helmet,
and over each eye there was a massive
horn directed forward, a third, but
much smaller horn being generally Just
over the nose. He was about twice the
twenty-five feet in height. He weighed
about ten tons.
And the most remarkable fact of all
is that in the opinion of Prof. Osborn
and his fellow scientists in the Ameri-
can Museum of Natural Histary this
same gigantic three-horned beast was
the prey of the Tyrannosaurus Rex.
How scientists should be able to under
stand that it was the flesh of this par
ticular beast that would be most satis-
flying to the king monster of them ALL
is one of those riddles which the man
in the street has not yet solved. But
fresh evidence of this fact, hitherto
only partly suspected, is now coming
TO light and is being carefully traced
out of the large collections made by
the museum during the past few years.
The story of how this discovery was
made is one of the romances of science.
A few years ago Director Hornaday of
the New York geological park, return
ing from a hunting trip in the wilds of
Montana, brought the curator a fos-
slized horn which he had picked up on
his trip.
rs it of any value?" asked the
sportsman of the scientist.
"Of no great value in itself" replied
the curator; but of exceeding value
as a clue. We have had many stray
bones of this animal, but this find may
Jedu us 10 place WneTe Inere VIII ne
parts of this beast which We have
not yet found"
Flesh-Eating Dinosaur
The animal to which the horn be-
longed was the Triceratops. The sum-
mer following the return of Prof. Horn
aday from Montana, therefore, the
museum dispatched an expedition to
that same section of Montana to see
If they could find any more remains
of Triceratops. Mr. Barnum Brown,
an experienced fossil hunter, was put
in charge of the party. He was re-
warded with the finding Of exceed
ingly valuable remains OF the Tricera-
tops. but he was still more rewarded
by the finding of a few bones of what
appeared to be an animal of an en-
tirely different kind. The Triceratops
was herbvorous beast. But the new
bones showed clearly that they had be-
longed TO tiesh-eating Dinosaur. These