The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1920-08-06

The Brontosaurus, according 10 lhe ie So
ton herewith reproduced, doesn't ="
formidable, except for his SIZE. r ,fs
W. diroeour that seems best able to pay MS
vav ond keen on going is the Allsaurus. neS 81
teeth and claws and looks as IL lie hhsn' "'N
rapidly. ,oe,rr
However. the fact-that the African nlnoS""l
does not seem to be exactly like any ol Ih9 ~
historic relatives proves nothing. IL may -
the fellow Captain Stevens is after mas eN''"',u
like the rest of the world and is prepared To Pc
sent something entirely new in dinosaurs WI!
should he not have developed? Hes hau ~ w.
six million years in which to improve hliiS''l
"The Outlines of History" II. G. We'Is new
book. considers these early monsters qu''c '""s
He says in one place:
.Tho oor,iest-known REPTILES were beasts with
great bellies and not very powerful legs, Ver! IKE
their kindred amphibia, wallowlng as Inc c'o'o-
die wallows to this day but in the MeSo|o'c '"cs
soon began TO stand up and go stoutiy on III lou's'
and several great sections OF them pcsah 10 p''-
ance themselves on tail and hind legs rather as
the kangaroos do now. Another DIVISION WIS VIC
crocodile branch, and another developed toward
tba tortoise and the turtles. The PlesloSaurS anu
the Iclthyosaurs were two groups which leit no
living representatives. Plesiosaurus measured oo
feet from snout to tail tip-of which half was neck
'sThe Mosasaurs were a third group Of great por-
poiselike marine lizards. But the largest anu
most diversified group Of these MesoZoic reptiles
was the group we have spoken Of as Kangaroo
like. the Dinosaurs, many of which attained cnor-
nous proportions. In bigness these greater ONO
saurs have never been exceeded, although the sea
can still show in the whales creatures as great.
Some of these, and the largest among them, were
herbivorous animals they browsed on rushy vege-
tation and among the ferns and bushes. or lhey
stood up and grasped trees with their forelegs
while they devoured the foliage.
"Among the browsers, for example, were the
Diplodoccus carnegii, which measured "a feet in
length. and the Atlantosaurus. The Gigantosau-
rus. disinterred by a German expedition in 1917
from rocks in East Africa, was still more colossal.
II measured well over 100 feet! These greater
monsters had legs. and they are usually figured as
standing up OH them; but 1t is very doubtful if
they could have supported their weight In this
way out of water. Bpoyed up by water or mud
they may have got along.
"Another noteworthy type we have figured is the
Triceratops. There were also q great number OF
flesh eaters, who preyed upon these herbivores.
or these, TyrannOsaurus seems almost the last
word I'm frightfulness' among living things. Some
species of this genus measured 40 feet from snOut
20 foil Apparently it carried this vast body kan
poroo fashion, on its tail and hind legs. Probably
n reared itself up. Some authorities even sup
nose that it leapt through the air. If so. 1t pos
sessed muscles of a quite miraculous quality.
Much more probably it waded, half submerged, In
nursuit of the herbivorous river saurians.'
And along with these terrible beasts were bat
like creatures. "These batliZarGs were the ptero-
dactyls. But birdlike though they were, they were
not birds, nor the ancestors of birds. The struc-
ture Of their wings was that of a hand with one
long finger and q web; the wing of a bird Is like
an arm with feathers projecting from it's hind
edge. And these pterodactyls had no feathers"
All of these creatures have disappeared from
the face of the earth, Wells says. They ended
abruptly. They were extinguished, as though by
the waving of a magic wand, perhaps in order to
make place for man and Wells says that the end
ing of the reptiles is beyond all question the most
striking revolution In the whole history of the
earth before the coming of mankind.
at Is probably connected with the close Of a
vast period Of equable warm conditions and the
onset of a new, austerer age, In which the winters
were bitterer and the summers brief, but hot"