The Oakley herald. [volume] (Oakley, Idaho) 1908-1961, 1920-08-06

The Rrontosaurus, according to the restora-
ton herewith reproduced, doesn't look espec'"ny
formidable, except for his size.
I've dinosaur that seems best able to pay MS
way and keep on going Is the Asaurus. He's got
teeth and claws and looks as II he might move
rapidly.
However the fact that the African dlnosaur
does not seem to be exactly like any OF MS pre-
historic relatives proves nothing. 1t may De 'n"s
the fellow Captain Stevens Is after has evoiuteu
like the rest of the world and is prepared to pre-
sent something entirely new in dinosaurs why
should he not have developed He's had at least
six million years In which to improve himself
1.-THE Outlines Of History" H. g. Wells new
book, considers these early monsters quite 1uiiy'
He says In one place:
THE earlest-known reptiles were beasts Win
great bellies and not very powerful legs very ike
their kindred amphibia, wallowing as the croco-
ollie walows to this day; but In the Mesozolc they
soon began to stand up and go stoutly on all 1onrs
and several great sections Of them began to bal
ance themselves on tail and hind legs. rather as
the kangaroos do now. Another division was the
crocodile branch. and another developed toward
the tortoise and the turtles. The Pesiosaurs and
the Ichthyosaurs were two groups which left no
living representatives. PlesiOsaurus measured 800
feet from snout to tail tip-of which half was neck
1.-THE Mosasaurs were third group Of great por-
poiselike marine lizards. But the largest and
most diversified group of these Mesozoic reptiles
was the group we have spoken Of as kangaroo
like the Dinosaurs many Of which attained enor
nous proportions. In bigness these greater Dino
saurs have never been exceeded, although the sea
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 they
stood up and grasped trees with their forelegs
while they devoured the foliage
Among the browsers, for example, the
Diplodoccus cnrnegi which measured "a feet In
length, and the Atlantosaurus The Gigantosau
rus disnterred by a German expedition In 1912
from rocks In East Africa, was still more colossal.
1t measured well over 100 feet These greater
monsters had legs and they are usually figured as
standing up them but 1t is very doubtful II
they could have supported their weight In this
way out OF water. Buoyed up by water mud
they may have got along.
Another noteworthy type we have figured Is the
Trlceratops. There were also great number Of
flesh eaters, who preyed upon these herbivores.
OF these Tyrannosaurus seems almost the last
word In frightfulness' among living things. Some
species Of this genus measured 40 feet from snout
to tall Apparently II carried this vast body kan
CARGO fashion, on Its tail and hind legs Probably
II reared itself up. Some authorities even sup
pose that 1t leapt through the air. II SO, 1t pos
sessed muscles OF a quite miraculous quality.
Much more probably 1t waded, half submerged, in
pursuit Of the herbivorous river saurians"
And along with these terrible beasts were bat.
like creatures. "These batlzaros the ptero-
dactyls But birdke though they were they were
not birds nor the ancestors of birds. The struc-
ture of their wings that Of hand with one
long finger and web; the wing of a bird is like
an arm with feathers projecting from its 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 extingushed, 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
ut is probably connected with the CLOSE OF u
vast period Of equabe conditions and the
onset of new, austerer age, in which the winters
bitterer and the summers brief, but hot"