The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1920-08-05
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Of wind from the side would blow it over. 1t Is
ridiculous to think that animal hundred feet
long would have legs close together in the mid
die and have three-quarters of its length sticking
out in front and behind unsupported in the air.
My idea is that the brontosaurus was a reptile,
practically a crocodile with snakeIike neck,
and not mammal, that it carried itself
crocodile does. that is. erawled its belly when
on land and did not walk on straight legs.
81 think it crawled with it's neck drawn back
so as to strike like n cobra and most likely had
poisonous fangs. In fact, it, was big poisonous
lizard, and that it brilliantly coIored, like
Them and perhaps discharged poison through its
skin like toad when irritated.
'The best weapon to shoot It with would be
the magnifed Mauser rifle such the Germans
used against tanks, only with explosive shell
instead of an armor-piercer. If were younger
I should be off after him."
Anyway, the monster is sufficiently real to
have set the scientists dIsputfng about his posi-
bility, his identity and his looks. They call him
all sorts of names-brontosaurus, triceratops bro
alosaurus, tylosaurus and so on. One expert
writes to the press:
1.-The animal in question can not be a bromo-
surus if the Illustration in H. G. Wells book
Outlines OF History correct. The illustra-
tons show very different creature from the de
scriptions in the newspapers Of this What
this one really appears to be is triceratops, only
that animal has two horns"
Another zoologist heaps scorn on the entire
idea, asserting that while he believes there are
undiscovered animals living in the heart of Africa
he doubts that dinosaur or any other primevaI
beast exists anywhere today. He writes:
1.-The period in which they lived is incredibly
remote as counts time. Their bones are
found in the strata of the Eocene period. The
brontosaurus remarkable for his very small
head and small brain cavity. His whole skull was
no larger than his neck bone. The name means
thunder beast and one species well over fifty
feet in length and weighed probably twenty tons
more"
The evolution of man has been long process
that
prefer to dodge the question of the millions of
years involved and reckon in eras an era being
anywhere from six to 10 millions of years They
call the first era ArcheozOic; it is ancient beyond
all knowledge. Then comes the PrOterozOic with
its very primitive forms of water life lasting 80
millions OF years The Paleozoic with fish, am
phibians and land plants, lasted 40 millions The
Mezozoic the age Of reptiles and amphibians and
of trees, the first mammals; it lasted 16 mil
lions of years. The present era the Cenozoic has
seen the rise and development Of the highest or
ders OF plants and animals and the appearance OF
its duration to date IS put at million years
So that's what up against when we
talk OF there being at large in Africa a survivor
OF the Age of Reptiles.
Anyway, we know these reptiles actually
existed because find their fossil remains pretty
much all over the world Why these fossils are
so thick out In Utah, q. s. A, that we have the
Dinosaur National monument. You see once upon
a time, the waves Of an open rolled over the
spot where now stands Longs peak (14255 feet)
king of the Rockies" In this sea sported the
marine monster OF long ago and on its shores
lived the grotesQue creatures OF the Age of Rep
tiles. Then the Rocky Mountains heaved them
selves up and this great inland sea had to run OF
into the Arctic ocean and the Gulf of Mexico and
the-Pacifc And then the rains washed down the
mountains and filed up the plains with the
scourngs
Some Of the creatures In this inland sea got
mired and their bones are found petrified in
a remarkably perfect state of preservation And
it's no trick for a scientist who knows his bust
ness to reconstruct animal from his bones