, 1905-01-17
THE LARGEST
EVER FOUND
BONES OF ANIMAL SUPPOSED TO
BE HUNDRED FEET LONG uN.
COVERED BY w. II. REED.
Thigh Bone Of Huge Monster Now In
Museuu Of University Of Wyo-
mins-8eience Enriched and Ma
ture Exemplified In startling Dis.
eovery In Medicine Bow Range.

The following article, b,
G. A. Cook Of this city and printed IL
Sundays Denver Post, with the sane
ton of Mr.. ". H. Reed, the paleontoi
ogist of the University of Wyoming
and accompanied by nearly a page Of
Photographs Of the huge FOSSILS, will
be read with considerable interest. as
describing the bones OF the largest ami
NAL yet brought to the surface, placing
the museum Of the university away
ahead in such matters:
Scientific explorers from Columbia
university and elsewhere worked the
Bone Cabin Quarry" field for years
but w. H. Reed secured for the west
and for the University Of Wyoming the
largest bone of q prehistoric animal
ever brought to the earth's surface.
The university museum has been en-
riched by Mr.. Reeds find n science
has been added to in a way that can
not fail to be of benefit to future gen.
e%rations in seeking after knowledge
concerning the animal life of this old
planet of ours. One can indeed say
"old" planet, for scientists have plac'
ed the g OF the world at 1000, 600
years since this d%inosaur roamed the
land and fed on the luxuriant vegeta.
ton that was then in a low plain, soak.
ed with water and full of miasmic few
|er, six miles below the present level
of the ground from which his bones
were delved by man less than a year
ago. Several million years ago he liv-
ed. and how much longer the earth had
existed even scientists, those ardent
g~uessers. will not venture to say.
Mr.. Reed, the curator Of the museum
OF the University Of Wyoming and in
structor in paleontology, is a modest,
unassuming man Of about 81 years,
who has done much to develop the
geology Of the state and to place the
museum Of the university in the front
rank. He talks as calmly Of this mas
sive fossil as II 1t were q burnt match
or a broken pencil, Keeling on words
that to a novice are seemingly mean
ingless-and endless-and yet one
fingers on them. catching his breath
in a sort Of awe as he touches the
blackened and rough bones Of the mon.
ster, perhaps one of the largest AMI
mails that ever lived and certainly the
largest yet brought to the knowledge
of man. He does not feel the awe the
novice does. for the bones of these
huge monsters are familiar to him and
like an open book containing the his
tory of not only the animal itself but
Of the land in which he lived, the food
upon which he fed. the I'M of his
death and the characteristics Of the
huge form that made life a matter OF
moment to the dinosaur.
The bones mounted in the museum
at Laramie of n mighty monster OF
the unheard-of past consist OF not to
exceed twenty-five. but they tell their
story as clearly In some respects as II
they were double in number. They
Indicate an animal perhaps 100 feet In
length, Weighing fifty or sixty tons,
standing twenty-three feet high at the
hips. the neck and tail forming at
least two-thirds Of the length OF the
animal. The largest bone. and the
principal one In determining both the
size and the nature Of the dinosanr. ia
the right femur. 1t weighs about 200
pounds, is six feet Ave inches long.
about nine feet In diameter at the
largest part. which Is the upper end.
and not less than a foot In diameter
at the smallest point. 1t Is now black
in color, but Mr.. Reed says 1t was I'M
doubtedly white during the life OF the
animal, taking on the color OF the en-
closing matrx, which was black mud.
1t Is rough, and he thinks about the
same size now that 1t was when 1t a
sisted the huge leviathan to meander
through the soggy ground that afford
ed the feeding place for this and other
animals OF its kind. 1t may have seal
ed OF = little, but not very much.
Two other bones Of the same animal
are the tibia and hbula, forming the
extension of the huge right hindermost
limb. These were side by side, each
four feet one inch in length. and