The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1917-02-24
GREAT HORNED REPTILES
Were Sluggish, Stupid Creatures with
Small Brain.

Those who have seen skeleton of the
great extinct reptile triceratops--t di-
nosaur ('terrible lizard") with the
"three- horned face"-or, better still,
good restoration of the animal as it was
in life, or vivid picture such as the
painting by 9. r. Knight, now in the
National museum at Washington, have
undoubtedly marveled at the huge, I'M
wieldy bulk of the creature, its massive
limbs, ponderous body and particularly
its enormous skull with two stout curved
brow horns, rhinoceros- like nasal horn,
parrot -beaked jaws and great spread of
bony cape over the neck and shoulders.
Triceratops reached a length of over 20
feet, and its skull from the tip OF its
beaked jaw to the edge of its frill, as
the bony cape is technically named, was
as much as eight feet long. Yet it was
probably sluggish, stupid creature with
intelligence of a very low order, for its
brain, in proportion to its skull, was
among the smallest known in back boned
animals.
Other hornedSlinosaurs that were quite
oo Adi SC anu pttulidl nNtu luC
same period One of these (diceratops)
lacked the nasal horn but was otherwise
much like triceratops. Another large
form (torosaurus) had a thinner frill
with two large openings through the
bone, though these were concealed in life
by muscular tissue and skin.
Besides triceratops and its relatives,
earlier and probably ancestral types of
ceratopsian ("horned- faced'') dinosaurs
have long been known to science. The
primitive forms were as rule smaller
and less bizarre; they possessed much
smaller frills and mere stumps of brow
horns, though they had well developed
nasal horns. For a long time the fossil
remains of these dinosaurs were not un-
derstood, but collectors eventually found
enough parts of skeletons to give an idea
Of the appearance and character of the
animals In the last few years enough
Ine skeletons have been found to extend
of them notably. and a num-
Der have been described and named
Among the new forms of horned dino
'aurs recently discovered is that known
is brachyceratops ('short -horned face"l,
which lived ages ago in northwestern
Montana. Brachyceratops walked on all
ours but had much shorter front legs
han hind legs. It's back was covered
With mosaic of small horny plates set
lose together In the skin. The tail was
leavy and long enough to drag on the
yround. The head had short beaked
avs, single stout. short horn on the
lose and two knots representing the
row horns. A short bony frill extend
d backward over the neck to the shout
ers. The best specimen known is the
emains of young individual, but at
hat it was eight feet long and stood
erhaps three feet high at the hips. AL
ogether it must have been an odd and
beast, though not nearly SO
ormidable in appearance as some of its
iter relatives.
Brachyceratops is described in detail in
report just issued by the L. S. geologi-
al survey, department of the interior az
paper l03 "Brachyceratops,
Ceratopsian Dinosaur from the Two
Iedicine Formation of Montana" by {.
'. Gilmore. The report is purely tech
zeal and may be obtained from the di-
sctor of the U. S. geological survey,
Washington, ID. C..