| OCR Text |
Show j 1 PREHISTORIC MONSTER. '5I1! T ' lj ' ' THAT WAS AMERICAN A alteloton of the Dronloaaurua, the largest animal that ever lived, has been obtained by the American Museum Mu-seum ot Natural History of New York. The skeleton Is ages old, 10.000.0UO years, according to some geologlau, for the Ilrontoauurus lived In the Cre-t&ceus Cre-t&ceus period, when reptiles ruled the earth, long before man and mammals made their appearance or the earth as sumed Its present external form. The Brontosaurus was a gigantic lizard seventy feet long, ills name la formed from two Greek worda mean-" mean-" ' Ing "thunder lizard." Tills name has been given becauae aome scientists believe be-lieve that the animal made a noise like thunder when he walked nut an unreasonable un-reasonable supposition. It II gratifying to know that the Brontosaurus Is an American. He and ., bla friends lived In and about a great I tropical lake where Wyoming and ad- 1 Jacent atatea now are. Thus tho Am- I arlcan reputation for big things goes f on growing. I Extraordinary Interest la attached to 4, this And from the fact that It I the largest and most nearly complete kaleton ao far found of this creature. Heretofore only fragmentary parts tare been brought to - light. There-store There-store It la considered one of the most Taluable contributions to the knowledge knowl-edge ot the primeval world that la In i.J' existence. I The following are the actual I measurements of this monster, which and one-half foot wide, and when he rose on his hind legs he waa up In the air a distance equal to the fourth story of the average big apartment house. The immense hip bonea of the Ilronto-aaurua Ilronto-aaurua reaches nearly up to the neck of a man, while bla footprints would have covered a yard square. One of the puzzling features to scientists sci-entists about the animal la his extraordinarily extra-ordinarily small head, containing but an ounce or ao of brain, and having no teeth of any Importance, In comparison compari-son with the enormoua pouch or stom- J acb he possessed. An Idea of the size of the latter Is obtained from the rib measurements, which ahow that Ita vertical diameter waa at loast twelve feet It waa big enough to contain two men, one standing on the other'a shoulder, with arms extended. This new specimen surpaaBca In Importance and Interest the first J)lg Dinosaur found by Professor Marsh, In 1870, In the same state. Since then I have been worked out by the dlscov- eTere from the size and length of the bones. In life the animal flood twenty feet high, which l twice the height of J a elephant; the length of his body as aeventy feut, and ho weighed Bilrty tons. The ribs are alx feet long j i I. the principal fossil area of our continent con-tinent has been located In the great Kocky .Mountain basin. Systematic search by many scientific institutions hug brought to view numbers of strange monsters new to aclcuco and to the eye of num. The American Museum has for severul yeara past had a atnff of trained Investigators In the field hunting for specimens. Another An-other notable recent find waa that of the little three-toed horse, the ancestor ances-tor of the modern animal. The mighty Brontosaurus, however, eclipses all previous dlacoverlea, and la arousing universal Interest among the general public and scientific students. The life habits of thla monster and the manner of Ita finis extermination have been very thoroughly worked out by the scientists. Agea back, long before man or'the warm-blooded animals existed, this uncouth beast roamed In and around the borders of tho groat tropical lake now covered by New Mexico, California, Califor-nia, Wyoming, Montana and the Dakota!. Da-kota!. In the bed of the lake he sank and was burled doep away from the dee-tructlve dee-tructlve work of the elements and the land fleah-entlng animals. Dame Na ture by piling on top of him successive succes-sive layers of aedlment thoroughly protected the monster for these millions mil-lions of yeara, until erosion and the pick of the scientist have brought forth the skeleton from Its rocky tomb. The great lake basin slowly filled up with aedlment, but remained a lake ao long that the deposits formed In It during the Eocene period reached a vertical thlcknesa of more than a nillo. At present the basin, changed to rock, la alx to eight thousand fort above ocean level. The broutosaurua waa a slowly moving mov-ing reptile, as Is Indicated by the very small head and brulu, and waa wholly without armor, having no offensive weupona of any kind. Ills legs were eight to tun feet in length and were strong and massive. Ho had a long and powerful tall, and while ha waa an aquatic monster, It la certain that on lund at times he assumed an erect position. The physical condltlona wcro about the aame as exist today In tropical America. A moist anil warm climate wua the kind that suited the brontosuurus. It appeara that he frequently fre-quently took to the land in search of food, but a water life afforded (hla comparatively h-lpless creature tho gruatrut protection from the other large flehh-eatlng animals who lived on land at the nw time. |
