Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1906-09-20
GIANTS OF THE PAST

GIANTS OF THE PAST
PREVIOUS AGES SUPPLY US WITH
ENORMOUS FOSSIL BONES.
LtxaraS Three Times the Size OF the
Largest Elephant and . Turtle
Whose Shell Locked Like . HIT.
The Remarkable Plated Lizard.
The belief in a race of giants was
once almost universal. Even today
large skeletons when found are some
times reported as being those Of giant
human beings. This was especially
true Of the period abut the tenth and
eleventh centuries, and in the latter q
most amazing discovery was reported,
which threw the scientific world Of the
time into great excitement. 1t was said
that the body of Pallas, the son Of
Evander, had been discovered beneath
the tomb Of the Emperor Henry III.
The bones were enormous aud proved
to have belonged to huge fossil ele-
plant. AS late as the fifteenth century
a war Of words was waged over find.
Of large boxes, one party claiming that
they belonged to the giant Teutobochus.
In 1857 a giant was discovered in
Switzerland. The council of Lucerne
requested learned scientific man, Pro-
..Assor Felix Platter Of Basel, to report
upon it, and he not only announced the
bones as part Of human giant, but
made a complete restoration, showing
the man twenty feet high, which the
proud city adopted as an ancestor In
the arms Of the commonwealth. Unfor-
tunately for the theory and much to the
discontinue of The people who had
raised to a high pinnacle this mighty
ancestor, it was found to be the re-
mains Of an elephant
Nearly all the mastodon finds were
attributed to giants, but there Is no evil
dence that a human giant ever existed
over eight feet IN height, and 1t ia ex-
tremely doubtful If this height was
ever attained
Giants other than human are very
common in all branches of the animal
kingdom-giants in every sense when
compared to their pygmy representa-
tives Of today. Some years ago some
laborers in the Senalik hills of India
were engaged upon government
work when they came upon the re-
mains OF a turtle that proved beyond
question that these animals had their
giants in the days of old. The shell
which the men exposed might have
been used as a shelter for several men,
and at first, before its bony nature
was observed, it was thought by the
natives to be hut of some kind. For
tunately the bones were uninjured, and
they We're taken cut and removed to
the British museum, where complete
restoration Of the animal may be seen.
The length of the turtle was ten feet,
Its horizontal circumference twenty
five feet and it's girth fifteen feet, but
it was estimated by scientists that
this was not an adult and that when
fully grown this huge creature would
display a dome-like back eight or nine
feet high, giving total length Of
twenty feet.
One Of the common animals In equa-
torial South America and In Central
America is the lizard iguana, which
attains length of four or five feet
and is considered rather large, but
it was pygmy when compared to an
ancestor that once wandered over Eng
land and various portions Of the world.
A number Of years ago some working
men were excavating and blasting in
quarry near Maidstone, England, when
some bones We're uncovered that caus-
ed profound establishment on the part
Of the finders. The skeleton was per-
feet, and as it was lifted out, bone by
bone, their amazement increased, and
the news was spread all over the coun-
try, attracting large numbers Of peo-
pie. When the bones were placed in
their proper position they were found
to be the skeleton of gigantic lizard
that when alive must have been three
times as bulky as the largest living ele-
plant and stood upon its hind legs like
a kangaroo, tearing down branches
from the highest trees. Such an ami
NAL was a slow mover and sluggish
and must have fallen an easy prey to
the human hunters, if they existed.
The marine giants were even more
bizarre and remarkable than the land
FORMS II we can imagine the little
iguana heightened out to thirty feet, its
back spines changed to broad finlike
objects, we form some idea of the ap-
pearance Of one of the small dinosaurs,
Stegosaurus ungulatus, one of the most
uncanny and remarkable creatures ever
found. It is called the plated lizard,
and the best skeleton was found on the
eastern flank of the Rocky mountains.
! Some of the plates with which this ar
mored lizard were protected were two
| or three feet in diameter and the spines
| over two feet in length. From the fact
that the hind limbs were the largest It
is evident that this strange creature
could lift itself up and sit like kan
CARGO, resting upon its powerful tail,
which. with its enormous spines, must