Show SALAMANDERS OF GREAT SIZE Proof That Species Long Extinct Sometimes Attained a Length of Five Feet Hi Ih Europe some time ago bones were ere du dug up of some newts which In life had been about five feet long E Every er boy bo- boIs Is familiar with newts which he calls salamanders commonly commonly com com- found foun In brooks and ponds A specimen five Inches long Is a big one oue But five feet they feet they must have been monsters Of course these giant newts were of long extinct species It would woul have hs been Interesting to live In n those days when hen so many queer monsters mostly of aquatic habits swarmed the earth They seem to have been among natures nature's natures nature's natures nature's na na- na- na tures ture's earliest experiments abandoned later There were no mammals then and the supposition Is that thal all mammals of today Including man were originally originally origin origin- ally derived from a reptilian ancestry We cannot say sar for Cor certain that this queer reptile which lI lived ed about years ago was not actually an nn ancestor ancestor an an- lestor of our own It was dug up in Texas and has I een name named About eight feet teet long the tine most curious thing about It was the enormous fin tin It carried on Its back the back ribs of ot the fin being a series of ot bones exten extending from the ver ver- Of or what use was this fin Perhaps It was merely ornamental Or It may maybe maybe maylie be lie that It was a means of defense |