Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-02-16
DIPLODOCOS, DINOSAUR OF UTAH.
HAD BRAINS IN HIS TAIL
Reconstruction of Giant Lizard at Ma
tional Museum Reveals Curious
Anatomical Features.

have time to think about it. Action
was called for
Now with his primitive nervous sys-
tenn and enormously long body it may
have been too slow process even for
the extremely rapid nerve impulses to
be transmitted to his head, warning
him of his danger. So the brain es-
tablished a branch Office in the hind
part of the animal and, since this had
more business than the head Office in
the course of centuries greatly outgrew
it.
Under this theory, when diplodocos
felt himself getting caught in the mud
he was able to act correctly and i'm
mediately without any reference to his
head at all. A weakness of this theory,
Mr. Gilmore says, is that 1t doesn't
apply to other great mud-walloWing
creatures like the elephant or the hip
popotami, which are able to get along
very we'll with just one brain. Some
hold that the head-brain of diplodocoS
always remained in control Of the tall
brain.
May Learn From Snakes.
Some light may be thrown on the
subject, DR.. Austin H. Clark of the
National Museum staff, explained yes
terday, by the behavior of some of
diplodocos' distant living relatives, the
snakes. When copperhead sinks Its
fangs into its prey, said DR.. Clark, it
looks like an intelligent response, d.
rected from the head.
But he had CHOPPED the heads of
copperheads and Immediately after
grabbed them by the tails. The re-
Spouse, he says, is exactly the same
as If the head-brain was present. The
reptile strikes with terrific force and
apparent accuracy, the bloody stump
where the head had been striking the
eXperimenter.
Anatomically the copperhead does
not have any especially large mass of
nerve tissue anywhere in its vertebral
column. yet it seems obvious that there
is a very efficient reflex center there
somewhere. The reaction is obtained
much better II the decapitated snake is
grabbed almost exactly at the end OF
the vertebral column, giving some indi-
cation Of the location of the center. II
is possible, said Dr. Clark, that some
remnant of the "tail-brain" character
of old diplococos is common to reptiles
in general.
Need Brains to Keep Stomach Filled.
Diplodocos, says Mr.. Gilmore, prob
ably was strictly a plant-eating ANNA
and he needed about all the few brain:
he had in his head to direct him ir
enormous stomach filled. He was by nc
means the largest of the dinosaurs. but
he was so heavy that some authorize:
have questioned whether he ever livec
on dry land at all, holding that hi
never could have supported the enor-
nous weight of his body without the
aid of mud and water. But says Mr.
Gilmore, the creatures must have come
out on land to lay their eggs. Probably
he made most of his contacts with the
outside world with his tongue, which
served him both as smelling and taSt.
| ing organ.
Just now poor old diplodocos look.
like the beginning of Skyscraper, hi!
enormous ribs held in place by wooder
scaffolding as one part after another i!
added. demonstrating him is, in fact
rather complicated job of structural
steel work. When he finally is set ur
in the exhibition hall he will be pro.
vided with a cast iron backbone.
The casts are being made, section By
section, at the navy yard, following the
contour of his spine as shown by the
reconstruction with wooden platforms
The sections will be welded together
and the ribs arranged upon it so thai
VIC nOA AISelI Will De dlHlOSL eQCrely
concealed. No effort will be made to re.
store the body. What this looked like
Is almost entirely q matter of con.
lecture anyway, aside from the shape
as shown by the bones. But the skele.
ton will be good for another few thou
sand years, added to the vast cons that
1t already has remained on earth since
diplodocos emerged. a tiny animal, from
an egg deposited in the mud of a
Permian swamp and started immedi-
ately to eat and grow.
How long he lived nobody knows, MOI
how he came to his end in the gulpine
ooze millions of years before the first
human being appeared on earth. AND
diplodocos probably didn't know either
for, judging from the size of both his
brains, he could have had only a very
vague consciousness that he was alive
anyway.