Phases of animal life, past and present / by R. Lydekker.

  • Lydekker, Richard, 1849-1915.
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Phases of animal life, past and present / by R. Lydekker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    122 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT. nodon ; these mutual resemblances and differences thus serving to indicate that the latter has probably been de¬ rived from reptiles more closely resembling crocodiles. The teeth of the Hoplosaur, although so unlike those of the Iguanodon, likewise indicate that their owners were of herbivorous habits. The gigantic bulk of these creatures is indicated not only by the arm-bone men¬ tioned above, but also by another arm-bone obtained from the Kimeridge clay, which measures 57 inches in length, as well as by the thigh-bone of the allied Oetiosaur (whale-lizard) from the still older Stonesfield slate of Oxfordshire, which is upwards of 64 inches in length. The latter dimensions—stupendous as they seem—are, however, exceeded by another thigh-bone from the United States, which actually measures up¬ wards of 74 inches, or 6 feet 2 inches in length. The owner of this enormous bone has been appropriately named the Atlantosaur, and appears to have been the largest land animal yet known, alongside of which a full-grown elephant would be a mere pigmy. The total length of another nearly related but somewhat smaller American species known as the Brontosaur is, indeed, estimated to have been as much as 80 feet. Another peculiarity of these gigantic reptiles, which must not be passed over, occurs in the structure of the joints of the backbone, or vertebrae. In creatures of such enormous bulk, if the vertebrae were solid their weight would probably be an impediment to the free movements of the body ; and we accordingly find that these vertebrie were excavated into large hollow