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EXTINCT ANIMALS
Extinct Animals
By
BE) RAY LANKESTER, M-A., LL.D... F.R.S,
Director of the Natural History Departments of the
British Museum; Correspondent of the Institute
of France
WiTH 218 ILLUSTRATIONS
NEW YORK
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
1905
BUTLER & TANNER,
THE SELWOOD PRINTING WORKS,
FROME, AND LONDON,
PREFACE
HIS volume is a corrected shorthand report
of the course of lectures adapted to a
juvenile audience given by me during the Christ-
mas holidays 1903-4 at the Royal Institution,
London. The lantern slides which I used in
the lectures have been converted into process
blocks. Many of these were photographs
specially prepared under my direction for the
lectures, and are from specimens in the Natural
History Museum. My desire was, as far as
possible, to illustrate what I said by photo-
graphs taken from actual specimens. Some of
these have come out fairly well as process-
blocks. For several of the slides and figures
I have to thank my friend and colleague
Dr. Arthur Smith Woodward, Keeper of the
Geological Department of the Museum, to
whom I am greatly indebted for kind help in
many ways in regard to these lectures. Ihave
Vv
PREFACE
also to thank other friends for the loan of
lantern-slides and consequent process-blocks,
viz.. Mr. R. lLydekker, Dr. lBather, Dr.
Andrews and Mr. Pyecraft of the British
Museum, and Professor Sollas of Oxford. Jam
also indebted to the Trustees of the British
Museum for permission to use several figures of
extinct animals taken from the guide-books to
the Natural History Museum, published by
their order, to Messrs. Macmillan & Co., and
to Mr. John Murray.
I trust that this volume will not be regarded
as anything more ambitious than an attempt
to excite in young people an interest in a
most fascinating study, and that it will be
understood that it does not profess to give
more than a peep at the strange and won-
derful history of extinct animals.
EK. RAY LANKESTER.
1905.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
ANIMALS WHICH HAVE LATELY BECOME EXTINcCT—
THE STRATA OF THE EArtTuH’s CRUST
CHAPTER II
STRATA AND LAanD SuRFACES—TEETH AND BoNES—
Extinct Men—F tint IMpLEMENTS—THE Mam-
MOTH ELEPHANTS AND MaAstoDON—CLASSIFT-
CATION OF ANIMALS
CHAPTER III
THE ANCESTRAL HistoRY oF ELEPHANTS—EXTINCT
HorsEs AND RHINOCEROSES—THE ARSINOITHE-
RIUM , , 5
CHAPTER IV
EXTINCT GIRAFFES AND THE OKAPI—THE GIANT
SLOTHS OF SOUTH AMERICA AND THE GIANT Kan-
GAROOS OF AUSTRALIA
vii
PAGE
59
103
CONTENTS
CHAPTER V PAGE
THe Great Extinct REpTILES—DINOSAURS FROM
THE OOLITES—THE PARIASAURUS AND INOSTRAN-
SEVIA FROM THE TRIAS OF NorTH RUSSIA AND
South ArricAa—MariIneé REPTILES ; . 100
CHAPTER VI
Extinct FisHES—BELEMNITES — LINGULA — TRILO-
BITES—SCORPIONS AND STONE LILIES . . 245
vill
Mist. .OF 1LEUST RATIONS
Portrait of the Author b ‘ : . Frontispiece
Fic. PAGE
1. A number of bones of extinct animals embedded in
rock, from Pikermi near Athens : : , 2
2. Head of an Ichthyosaurus, from the Liassic rocks of
Lyme Regis : ; ‘ : : 5 6
3. The skeleton of the Megatherium found in the
alluvial sands of the Argentine Republic . : ii
4, The skeleton of a gigantic extinct rat-like animal—
the Toxodon—from the Argentine Republic : 8
5. Photographs of two skulls of Rhinoceroses in the
Natural History Museum ; : ‘ : 10
i=)
. Photograph of the thigh-bone of the great extinct
reptile, Atlantosaurus, from the oainnecic rocks
of the United States of America . : ‘ 11
7. The Common Grey Wolf (Canis lupus) of eS
once common in England é : 14
8. Photograph of a mounted specimen of the Beaver 15
9. Skull of the great extinct Bull, the Bos Primigenius
or the Urus, or Aurochs . Wy
1X
15a. Egg of the Great Auk, of the natural size
16.
17.
18.
19:
20.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Photograph of two Giraffes from life .
. Photograph of the living Quagga (Equus quagga),
. Photograph of the living Zebra (Equus birchelli) .
Steller’s drawing of the Sea-cow discovered by him
and called Rhytina stelleri
Photographed with its egg
Reproduction of a picture of the Dodo, mii ve
Roland Savery from life, in 1626 ;
. Photograph of a skull of Steller’s Sea-cow
. The Great Auk, or Gure-fowl (Alca impennis).
A nearly complete skeleton of the Dodo, put to-
gether from bones collected by Mr. George Clark
in a marshy pool in Mauritius
The living Giant Tortoise of the Court House,
Mauritius F
The ruins of the ancient Roman public buildings at
Puzzuoli (Puteoli) near Naples
One of the three columns of the “
Puzzuoli . . . 5
Empire (third century) .
. Puzzuoli at the present day
. Puzzuoli in the ninth century .
temple ”
at
. Puzzuoli or Puteoli in the time of the Roman
. Imaginary view of Spanish sailors carving an
inscription on rocks at sea-level in 1600 4.D., on
the Chilian coast
. The same rocks as they would appear in 1900, raised
150 feet above the sea-level by an imperceptible
movement of six inches a year .
x
26
27
29
32
39
40
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Fic.
26.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
Map to show the effect of elevation of the earth’s
surface on the distribution of land and water in
Western Europe
. The real test of Geology : an attempt to determine
the distribution of land and water in past ages.
Photograph of a slab of Bognor Rock (Lower
Eocene) showing embedded marine shells
Skeleton of a tapir-like animal (Palzotherium) as
found embedded in ealcareous rock at Montmartre,
Paris
Wings of a Dragon-fly preserved in the ancient
limestone of the Carboniferous period or Coal-
bearing rocks .
Pterodactyle skeleton preserved in Lithographic
limestone, showing the impression of the mem-
brane of the wings .
A jelly-fish (similar to the recent Awrelia auriia)
preserved in Lithographic limestone
Alternate layers of hard and soft rock (“‘ strata ’’)
forming the sea-cliff at Lyme Regis
Tilted strata of the Chalk at Seaford, Sussex.
Strata of the cliff at Lyme Regis
Diagram to show the effect of the bending or un-
dulation of the earth’s crust : : :
Ripple-marks preserved in ancient Triassic strata .
Bird-like footprints on a slab of Triassic rock from
Connecticut, U.S.A.
Three-toed~ footprint (probably of Iguanodon)
from the ,;Wealden Sandstone of the Isle of Wight
Slab of Triassic rock from Cheshire, showing hand-
like five-fingered footprints . : ° .
x1
PAGE
4]
43
45
46
47
47
ou
ou
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Fic. PAGE
41. A tabular view of the strata of the earth’s crust,
showing the relative thickness of each “‘ system”’
or group of strata, and the position in which
important animal remains have been discovered. 60
42. Map of the World, showing its division into great
provinces and regions characterised by the
presence of different kinds of animals : , 63
43. Photograph of the original piece (seven inches long)
of a thigh bone of a gigantic bird, from the
examination of which Sir Richard Owen inferred
the former existence of a ee flightless bird in
New Zealand . : : : - 68
44, Photograph of Sir Richard Owen standing beside
the restored skeleton of the New Zealand Moa
(Dinornis maximus) 3 - : - : 69
45. Photograph of the skeleton of Manand Horse from
a group, prepared under the direction of Sir
William Flower for the Natural History Museum 71
46. Photograph of the back of a skull of an Ox ,. ‘ie
47. Photograph of the back of a Crocodile’s skull . 74
48. Drawing of the auditory organ or internal ear of
man . ‘ : é : i : 75
49. Photograph from a section through the bone in
which the soft internal ear is lodged . 5 75
50. Photograph from preparations of the upper and
lower jaw of a Pig, to show the teeth in position. 78
51. Photograph of a preparation of the teeth of the
upper and lower jaw of a Pig. = - 79
52. Photograph of a preparation of the upper and lower
jawbone ofman : ; : ; - 80
53. Skull of the Clouded Tiger ° . ° o) anol
54. Photograph of the skull of the Coypu Rat . - 82
xii
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Fig.
55. Jaws of the Gharial, an Indian crocodile
56. Photograph of the skull and lower a of a true
Crocodile 5
57. Enlarged representation of the lower jaw of a small
mammal (Amphitheriwm prevostii) from the
‘Stonesfield slate of Jurassic (Oolite) age near
Oxford .
58. Photographs of two flint Se Ee of the’ Palzo-
lithic age : : ‘
59. Photograph of the top of the skull or “ calvaria ”’
of=the so-called Monkey-man, P2thecanthropus,
discovered in Java .
594. Photograph cf a human skull of modern to aes
race . -
60. Engravings on ivory and boneXjmade by ancient
men, who lived in caves in the South of France at
the time when the mammoth, reindeer, bear and
hyena inhabited Europe
61. Engraving on ivory found in a cave in the South
of France
62. The skeleton of the Mammoth found frozen in
Siberia .
63. Skeleton of a male of the giant Irish deer (Cervus
giganteus) dug up from peat in Ireland
64. An imaginary picture of the Mammoth (Elephas
primigenius) as it appeared in life :
65. Photograph from life of the Indian tas
(Zlephus maximus), incompletely grown
66. Photograph of a young specimen of ‘the African
Elephant (Elephas africanus) from life
67. Two tusks of Elephants photographed from speci-
mens in the Natural History Museum :
Xili
84
86
89
91
92
93
94
96
97
98
99
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Fie.
68. Skeleton of the American Mastodon (Mastodon
americanus), from a drawing by the late Professor
Marsh : : ' :
69. Skeleton of Indian Elephant (Elephas maximus)
70. Skull of an adult Indian Elephant
71. Photographs of skulls of a Bull-dog on the left and
of a Greyhound on the right to show the shortening
of the bones of the face in the first .
72. Photograph of the skull of the American Mastodon
(Mastodon americanus), frcm the specimen in the
Natural History Museum
73. Skull of a new-born Indian Elephant
74. Section of the skull of a young Indian Elephant
75. Section of a half-grown Indian Elephant’s skull
76. Lower jaw of an Indian Elephant .
76a. The last molar of the lower jaw of a Mammoth
77. Lower jaw of an adult African Elephant
78. Lower jaw of the American Mastodon
78a. Molar teeth of Mastodon arvernensis, photographed
from specimens found in the Red Crag of Suffolk.
79. Photograph of the complete skeleton of Mastodon
(Tetrabelodon) angustidens, from the Miocene
strata of the South of France
80. Restored representation of the skull and lower jaw
of Mastodon (Tetratelodon) angustidens, from a
drawing prepared by Dr. Henry Woodward, F.R.S.
81. The skull of Dinotherium giganteum, Kemp, from
the Miocene of Eppelsheim, near, Worms, on the
Rhine ‘ : ;
X1V
PAGE
100
101
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
115
116
118
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Fic.
82.
83.
84.
85.
86.
87.
88.
89.
90.
91.
92.
93.
94.
95.
96.
oT.
Drawing representing the probable appearance in
life of the Tetrabelodon angustidens
A drawing of the head of Tetrabelodon anqgustidens
with open mouth and uplifted “ trunk.’’. :
Drawing of the head of the African Elephant, with
uplifted trunk
A scene in the Fayum Desert, showing the remains
of silicified trees, embedded in the sands
Profile views of a series of Elephant ancestors, from
drawings by Dr. Andrews
Lower jaws of extinct Elephants, from drawings by
Dr. Andrews
Profile and palatine views of the skull of Meri-
therium Lyonsi, as restored by Dr. Andrews
The Meritherium, discovered by Dr. Andrews
Photograph of a model of a ee ed Sit
horse, by Vashtag .
Hind- and fore-foot of an English cart-horse
Hind-foot and fore-foot of the horse-ancestor,
Hyracotherium
The hind- and the fore-foot of Hipparion, one of the
three-toed ancestors of the horse
The skeleton of Hyracotherium, an ancestor of the
modern horse, found in Eocene strata.
Restoration of the probable appearance of the
Hyracotherium : ‘
Skeleton of the Phenacodus, a five-toed Eocene ani-
mal, related to the ancestor of the Horse
Cheek-teeth or molars of the upper and lower jaw,
left side, of Mesohippus Bairdii, from the Middle
Oligocene of South Dakota
XV
PAGE
119
137
138
139
140
141
141
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Fic.
98.
99.
100.
107
108.
109.
110.
cB UUIE
112.
113.
114.
Upper molar tooth of a recent Horse .
The skeleton of Rhinoceros antiquitatis, the Woolly
Rhinoceros of the late Pleistocene period in
Europe and Siberia
Photograph of a stuffed specimen of the Square-
mouthed African Rhinoceros (R. simus F
. Skeleton of Titanotherium (Brontops) robustum,
from the Lower Miocene of Dakota
2. Photograph of a skull of Titanotherium
. Side-viewJof the skull of Titanotherium
. Skeleton of Déinoceras mirabile
. Probable appearance in life of the Dznoceras
mirabile of North America
. Photographs of plaster casts of the brain-cavity of
(A) Dinoceras, (B) Hippopotamus, (C) Horse, and
(D) Rhinoceros : : : ; : :
Drawing of the skull of Arsindithertum Tittelli
(Beadnell) ; : 3 : ;
A drawing showing the probable appearance in life
of Arsinditherium . 5 : ‘
Drawing of the head of the Five-horned Giraffe
Photograph of the skull of the Five-horned Giraffe
Front teeth of the lower ou of the Giraffe and
allied animals : :
Photograph of a restored skull of the Sivatherium
Photograph of the skull of the Samotherium .
Restored skeleton of the giraffe-like animal Hella-
dotherium
Xvi
PAGE
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
152
161
162
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Fic. PAGE
115. Photograph of the specimen of the Okapii(Okapia
erichsoni) obtained by Sir Harry Johnston near the
Semliki river in Central Africa. : : . 163
116. Photograph of a skull of a male Okapi . : a = 164
117. Photograph of the two “* bandoliers ”’ cut from the
striped part of the skin of an Okapi . ; . 165
118. Photograph of a stuffed specimen of the two-toed
Sloth (Cholepus Bue): hanging from a
branch of atree. : ; : . 168
119. Photograph of a stuffed specimen of the Hairy
Armadillo or Peludo (Dasypus villosus) . . 169
120. Drawing of the skeleton of the great extinct
armadillo-like animal called Glyptodon . LTO
121. Probable appearance in life of the Giant Ground
Sloth, the Megatherium giganteum . : a lll
1225 the ekeleton of Mylodon robustus, one of the giant
Ground Sloths of the Argentine. 5 ‘ - 173
123. View, looking outwards, from the mouth of the
cavern on the fiord of the Ultima Speranza in
Southern Patagonia, in which have been found the
skin and hair and the bones with cartilage, blood
and tendon and the dung of the Mylodon and
other animals . : E : ; : . (174
124. Photograph of a piece of the skin of the Mylodon 175
125. The under side of the same piece of skin as that
shown in Fig. 124 7 : : ; fy l6
126. Photograph of various specimens found with the
remains of the Mylodon in the Ultima Speranza
cave : : a : 5 : . ne ia
127. Photograph of remains of Mylodon from the cave
of the Ultima Speranza . 3 : ; + 78
128. Photograph of a “ barrel-full of bones”? obtained
by prospectors from the cave of Ultima Speranza 179
XVil b
Fic.
129.
130.
131.
132.
133.
134.
135.
136.
137.
138.
139.
140.
141.
142.
143.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Photograph having the same history as that shown
in Fig. 128
Photograph of three pellets of the dung of the
Mylodon from the cave of Ultima Speranza
Photographs of the leg-bone (tibia) of Mylodon,
from the cave of Ultima Speranza . : :
Drawing of the skull of the Giant Australian
Marsupial, Diprotodon
The restoration of the skeleton of Diprotodon,
as drawn by the late Sir Richard Owen
Photograph of the morass or lake in South Australia
in which the remains of several specimens of
Diprotodon have been recently discovered
View of the upper surface of the right hind-foot of
Diprotodon, as discovered by Professor Stirling of
Adelaide, South Australia
Lower jaws of the ancient Mammals, Dromatherium
(upper—Triassic), and Dryolestes (lower—Juras-
sic) : :
Photograph of a cast taken from life of the New
Zealand lizard Tua-tara, known as Sphenodon
punctatus
Phrynosoma orbiculare (Mexican Horned Lizard, or
Horned Toad)
Chlamydosaurus kengi, from Queensland, Australia
Zonurus giganteus (Great Girdled Lizard)
Drawing of the skeleton of Iguanodon bernissar-
tensis. :
Probable appearance of the Iguanodon in its living
condition : :
Two teeth of Iguanodon mantelli .
XVili
PAGE
180
186
187
188
189
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
Fig.
144.
145.
146.
147.
143.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
A portion of the upper jaw of the recent lizard
Iguana . : :
Photograph of the skull of an Iguanodon .
Drawing of the skeleton of a carnivorousiDinosaur,
the Megalosaurus
Drawing of a completely restored skeleton of the
Brontosaurus
Probable appearance of the Ceteosaurus (and of the
closely similar Divlodochus and Brontosaurus)
in life ,
. Drawing of the appearance in life of the three-
horned Dinosaur, Triceratops .
. Probable appearance in life of the Jurassic Dinosaur,
Stegosaurus
. Photograph of the skeleton of Parisaurus .
. Probable appearance in life of the Theromorph
Reptile, Dimetrodon
. View of one of the dark patches in the cliffs of the
river Dwina
. One of the nodules showing the form of the em-
bedded skeleton
. Peasants working on the face of the cliff near
Archangel and removing nodules containing the
skeletons of great reptiles . 2
. Professor Amalitzki’s workshop in Warsaw .
. A series of skeletons of Parisaurus removed bit by
bit from Archangel nodules and mounted as de-
tached specimens by Professor Amalitzki
. Photograph of a skeleton of Pariasaurus, removed
from an enveloping nodule and mounted by
Professor Amalitzki
ab:
PAGE
200
202
203
205
206
207
208
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Fie. PAG!
159. Photograph by Professor Amalitzki on a larger
seale of askull of a Pariasaurus from an Archangel
nodule 219
160. Skeleton of a huge carnivorous beast of prey, the
reptile named Inostransevia 220
161. Skull of the vigantic Theromorph Carnivorous
Reptile, Inostransevia 221
162. Photograph of another skull of Inostransevia 222
163. Photograph of a skeleton of a Plesiosaurus . 223
164. Plesiosaurus as it probably appeared when alive 224
165. Photograph of a skeleton of the large- Pas
Ichthyosaurus : 225
166. Drawing to show the probable appearance of an
Ichthyosaurus swimming beneath the surface of
the sea . 226
167. Photograph of the upper surface of the skull of an
Ichthyosaurus 3 228
168. Side view of the skeleton of an Ichthyosaurus 229
169. Photograph of a restoration of the skeleton of the
great Pterodactyle (Pteranodon longiceps) 230
170. The great Ha eae Pteranodon as it pass :
in flight . : 231
171. Photographs of three wings for comparison of their
structure A 233
172. Probable appearance in life of two kinds of Jurassic
Pterodactyles (Dimorphodon and Khampho-
rhynchus) ‘ : : : : . 235
173. Restored skeleton of the toothed Bird Ichthyornis 237
174. The Berlin specimen of the Archwopteryx litho-
graphica 238
xX
Fie.
Lizhss
176.
186.
187.
188.
189.
190.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Photographs to one scale of the South American
Cariama and the skull of the gigantic extinct
Phororachus
Photographs to one scale of the Apteryx, the Ostrich
and the giant Moa of New Zealand, each with its
ees
- The hard bony scales of a Ganoid Fish
. Photograph of a dried skin of the Polypterus of
the Nile
. A fossil Ganoid Fish, as discovered embedded in rock
. Outline drawing of the extinct Ganoid Fish Osteo-
leps
. The Australian Lung-fish Ceratodus
. The extinct Devonian Fish Dipterus .
. Outline drawings of the extinct fish Pterichthys
. Photograph of a cardboard model of Pterichthys
. The upper figure is a restored outline of the curious
Devonian fish Coeceosteus
Photograph from the original specimen of Cephalas-
pis lyeli, preserved in the Natural History
Museum : ,
Drawings of the head-shield of the fossil fish
Pteraspis
Photograph (of the natural size) of a specimen
showing parts of the upper and lower head-shields
of Pteraspis crouchii, with ten rows of lozenge-
shaped scales attached
Photographs of models of the Devonian Fish
Drepanaspis, in the Natura] History Museum
Outline drawing of the Silurian fish Birkenia
XX1
PAGE
Fic.
191.
192.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Outline drawing of Lasanius
Photograph of the jaws of a large recent Shark
(Carcharodon rondeletiz)
1924. Photograph of the natural size of a tooth of the
193.
great Shark, Carcharodon megalodon
Ammonites (Aegoceras) capricornus .
1934. Shell of the Pearly Nautilus
194.
198.
199:
Divided shell of the Pearly Nautilus
. The shell of Ancyloceras matheronianum
. Belemnites hastatus, from the Oxford Clay (Jurassic)
. Restored drawing of the animal in which the
‘** Belemnite ’’ is formed .
Loligo media, a cuttle-fish or squid now living in
British seas
Lingula (Lingulella) davisit, of the natural size,
embedded in the slaty rock of Port Madoc, North
Wales. ‘ ‘ ‘ : : : ;
. One of the most ancient Trilobites known (Cono-
coryphe lyellc)
. Drawing of Triarthrus becki
. The Desert Scorpion (Buthus australis)
. Drawing of the remains of a Scorpion (Palewophonus
huntert)
. Completed drawing of the Scotch Silurian Scorpion
(Paleophonus hunteri)
. Completed drawing of the Silurian Scorpion of
Gothland (Paleophonus nuncius)
XXli
BIG:
206.
207.
208.
209.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
View of the anterior part of a recent Scorpion from
below
View from below of the anterior part of the great
Silurian Scorpion-like creature Pterygotus osilien-
Sis 5 3 :
Photograph of a restored model of Stylonurus
lacoanus)
Eurypterus fischeri, a marine Scorpion-like animal
from the Silurian rocks of Rootzikul
. Dorsal view of the King-Crab (Limulus polyphemus,
Linnzeus), one-fourth the size of nature.
. Diagram of the dorsal surface of a King-Crab
2. Diagram of the ventral surface of the same King-
Crab
. Dorsal view of the eighteen segments and post-anal
spine or sting
. Slab containing Pentacrinus hemeri
. Photograph of a block of Limestone of the Car-
boniferous, showing several kinds of stone-lilies
or Encrinites .
. Encrinus fossilis, of Blamenbach, the original
‘“* Stone-lily.”’ .
. The living British Encrinite, the minute young of
the Feather Star-fish (Comatula or Antedon),
. Drawing by Mr. Berjeau from an actual specimen
of the Feather Star-fish (Comatula or Antedon
TOSaCeQ) . : :
XXiil
PAGE
279
bo
Ne)
bo
a
CHER i
ANIMALS WHICH HAVE LATELY BECOME EX-
SEN Ci TEE STRATA OF THE EARTH'S
CRUST
XTINCT animals are animals which no
longer exist in a living state. Of course
a vast number of individual animals, and men
too, become extinguished, or extinct, in the
course of every year, every month and every
day.
But the extinct animals of which I wish to
speak in these lectures are extinct kinds of
animals, kinds of animals which no longer exist
on the surface of the globe in a living state,
although once they flourished and held their
own.
We know of some of them by tradition. The
records of men of past ages who have seen some
animals, now extinct, and have written about
them, and even drawn them, have by human
care been passed on to the present day. We
I B
EXTINCT ANIMALS
know of other extinct animals by finding their
bones buried in the ground, some quite near
the surface, others deeper in the rocks, far down
in the depths of the earth. Such bones may
be dug out. There is a sample of such bones
Fic. 1.—A number of bones of extinct animals embedded in
rock, from Pikermi near Athens. Photographed from a
specimen in the Natural History Museum.
found buried in the earth, photographed as our
first illustration (Fig. 1). Many of these bones have
been so big, so huge, that they have led to the
notion of the existence of giants in former days,
it not having occurred, apparently, to those who
2
GREAT AGE OF THEIR REMAINS
found them, that they were the bones of
extinct animals and not of a great race of men.
The indications given by buried remains of a
condition of the world which has passed away,
as, for instance, in the great buried town of
Pompeii, and some of the buried cities of Egypt,
excite, when they are dug up, the greatest
interest. From the records still preserved to
us, we try to find out what was the meaning
of the particular objects found, what were the
nature and the life of the men to whom they
belonged. The same kind of interest belongs
to the remains of extinct animals that we dig
up, only that many of them are far older than
any remains of man ever found. We speak of
the remains of an ancient Egyptian city as being
some thousands of years old; but the remains
of many animals to which I shall have to refer
in these lectures have to be estimated, not by
thousands of years, but by millions of years ;
so many years in fact that no numbers with
which we are familiar will suffice to bring the
facts to the minds of my readers.
Far down in the depths of the earth we find
the remains, in a well-preserved condition, of
the bones and teeth of such animals; we are
3
EXTINCT ANIMALS
able to tell what kind of animals they were,
where they lived, what they fed upon, how they
moved, and, in fact, their whole general appear-
ance.
It is urged by some educationists—I myself
do not agree with them—that we should present
knowledge to young people in a logical order ;
and that before talking to young or uninstructed
people about extinct animals you ought to ad-
minister to them a complete course of instruc-
tion concerning living animals; that beginners
must learn the nature of the structure of
living animals, and must study the geography
and history of the crust of the ground in which
the remains of extinct animals are found, before
they can look with any intelligence on extinct
animals. That is an opinion which exists. But
I do not believe in such a method. The logical
method of instruction or study is in my judg-
ment a mistaken one. The whole art of educa-
tion consists in exciting the desire to know. By
showing something wonderful, mysterious, as-
tonishing and marvellous, dug from the earth
beneath our feet we may awaken the desire to
understand and learn more about that thing.
The strangeness of the bones and teeth of
4
A FASCINATING SKULL
extinct animals will lead a boy or girl on to learn-
ing about the bones and teeth of living animals in
order to make a comparison, and thus to learn-
ing more concerning the strange remains dug
up. I believe that is usually the case. It
certainly was the case with myself. When I
was very young, younger than, or as young as
any of my readers, I used to be taken by a very
kind lady, my governess, to the Natural History
Museum of the day, which was then in a remote
part of London called Bloomsbury, whence it has
been removed to Cromwell Road, Kensington.
I was absolutely fascinated as a child with the
remains I saw of strange extinct animals. And
it is my hope that the boys and girls who read
these pages may share some of this interest and
fascination, and that they will pass from these
lectures to see the actual specimens which are
placed on view at the Natural History Museum.
These lectures are indeed little more than a
sort of invitation to you all to go and see the
real things at Cromwell Road, of which I can
only show you photographs in this book. I will
now show you a portrait of a creature which
has always fascinated me with its stony
stare. It is the head of an Ichthyosaurus dug
oO
EXTINCT ANIMALS
out of the rock in the South of England, at
Lyme Regis, many years ago (Fig. 2). The
eye is peculiarly well preserved. The circle of
bony plates, similar to those found in the eyes
of birds, give an expression of interest which
few fossils can boast of. It was dug out of the
rocks by a wonderful lady, Miss Anning, who
at the beginning of the last century secured a
Fic. 2.—Head of an Ichthyosaurus, from the Liassic rocks of
Lyme Regis. Photographed from the original specimen
in the Natural History Museum. The head is three feet
six inches long.
great number of such remains in the cliffs on
the sea-shore. For many years the front part
of this specimen was missing, but eventually
it was found and dug out of the rocks. I shall
have more to say later about creatures of this
kind,
Another creature which fascinated me is
shown here as it is exhibited in the East court
6
THE GIANT SLOTH
Fic. 3.—The skeleton of the Megatherium found in the alluvial
sands of the Argentine Republic, South America. Photo-
graphed from the cast in the Natural History Museum.
The skeleton stands fourteen feet high.
7
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A LONDON RHINOCEROS
of the Museum (Fig. 3). It is similar in
structure and nature to the sloth. But instead
of living on a tree it stood on the ground, and
pulled the tree down to it, in order to feed on
the young branches. The skeletons of a great
many of these huge sloths have been found in
the gravel of South America.
Another strange great creature is revealed to us
by this skeleton (Fig. 4), like a huge guinea pig
with tremendous chisel-like teeth in front. It
also is found in South America. This is the
Toxodon.
The next picture (Fig. 5) I have here shows
the skulls of two rhinoceroses. The lower one
is the skull of an African rhinoceros, a living
beast known as the square-mouthed or white
rhinoceros—called white apparently, not because
he is black, but in spite of the fact that he is
black. As a matter of fact he sometimes has a
number of white patches. But it suffices to
know him as the square-mouthed rhinoceros.
The upper specimen is the skull and lower
jaw of a rhinoceros, dug up last year in the
City of London in Whitefriars, under the
office of the well-known newspaper the Daily
Chronicle. Digging in the mud and clay there,
S
EXTINCT ANIMALS
the workmen came upon this rhinoceros skull.
Many such have been found in English river
Fic. 5.—Photographs of two skulls of Rhinoceroses in the
Natural History Museum. The upper one was dug out
of the Thames clay in Whitefriars, London, and is that
of the species known as Rhinoceros antiquitatis. The
lower one is that of the living African square-mouthed
Rhinoceros (R. stmus), which is more like the fossil one
than is any other living rhinoceros.
gravels, and we know accordingly that such
animals used to exist on the banks of the
10
Fic. 6.—From a cast in the Natural History Museum. Photo-
graph of the thigh-bone of the great extinct reptile,
Atlantosaurus, from the Jurassic rocks of the United
States of America. The thigh-bone is six feet in length :
that of a very big elephant is barely four feet.
el
EXTINCT ANIMALS
Thames many thousands of years ago. That
specimen also is in the Natural History Museum.
Here (Fig. 6) you have a thigh bone; you
can see how enormous it is from the figure of
the full-grown man beside it. That is the
thigh bone of a huge kind of reptile, bigger
than the ordinary elephant, or the biggest
African elephant, without counting the rep-
tile’s tail, Such remains have been found
in England; but the largest have been found
in the United States.
These are just a few samples of the remains
of extinct animals, and indicate the kind of
creatures I want to tell you about. Of course
I cannot in these pages refer to all the many
thousands of kinds of extinct animals which are
known ; I can only hope to show you pictures
of a few samples of these things, which, how-
ever, I hope will suffice to induce you to look
further into the matter, to look at the real
specimens, and to read more elaborate books,
and thus come to feel the same interest and
pleasure in examining them that I do myself.
The world upon the surface of which we live
has been for millions of years always changing.
Nothing is to-day as it was even one hundred
12
INCESSANT CHANGES
years ago. A thousand years brings about
enormous changes, quite a different state of
things in fact. There are now cities where
forests were growing. Animals which existed a
thousand years ago have altogether gone. And
this history of change has been going on, not
merely for a thousand years, but for hundreds
and thousands and millions of years. The
changes have been incessant, and have been
very great.
The difficulty in this study of extinct animals
and in the geology connected with it is to think
of long enough lapses of time. If you look at
that clock you cannot see the hand moving,
and yet it is moving. And thus even in a
human lifetime you will hardly notice any
difference in the rivers and the sea-shore and
the cliffs. But if you range over a long enough
time, say a thousand years or several thousands
of years, and compare the condition which
existed a thousand years ago with what exists
to-day you will be able to observe great change.
The difficulty is to realize this change, for it
comes about too slowly for our short lives to give
us any real definite experience of it, just as we
fail to see the hands of the clock moving when
13
EXTINCT ANIMALS
we glance at them for a second. Throughout
these lectures I want you always to bear that
in mind.
We know of animals even now which are
becoming extinct. In this country we have
Fic. 7.—The Common Grey Wolf (Canis lwpus) of Europe, once
common in England, but now extinct there.
historical records of animals that have become
extinct. I will show you one which used to
exist in this country.
This creature, the grey wolf (Fig. 7), existed
14
THE BEAVER
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EXTINCT ANIMALS
in England till the time of Henry VIII., at the
end of the fifteenth century, and 150 years
later in Scotland and Ireland. But it was
entirely exterminated by human beings, on
account of its rapacious and dangerous habits.
Though it is extinct in England, it still exists in
France, Spain, Germany and Russia.
Here is another animal (Fig. 8), the beaver,
which used to exist in England, and was found
as late as the sixteenth century in Wales. It
still exists in France, on the banks of the
streams at the mouth of the river Rhone ; also
in Russia and Scandinavia. In America, in
Canada, beavers are still more abundant.
Another creature which, records tell us,
existed all over Europe, and which has ceased
to exist, is the great bull or Urus of Julius
Caesar (Fig. 9). He mentions it as existing
wild in different parts of Europe, and says it
was nearly as big as an elephant. Well, no
such great wild ox now exists in Europe. The
last was killed near Warsaw in 1627. All we
have now are the breeds derived partly from
this, partly from other kinds of bulls, which,
are quite changed in their general appear-
ance. Some of the more or less wild cattle
16
THE GREAT BULL OF CASAR
in different parts of England, for instance those
on Lord Tanqueray’s and the Duke of Hamil-
ton’s estates, are supposed by some persons to be
the remains of this race of wild oxen. But
this is probably a mistake. They are really
Fic. 9.—Skull of the great extinct Bull, the Bos primigenius,
or the Urus, or Aurochs. The measurement from one horn-
tip to the other taken round the curves, was in some
cases eight feet. The Urus stood in rare instances as
much as seven feet at the shoulder ; a fair-sized Elephant
stands nine feet.
the remains of cattle introduced by the Romans,
and have run wild. They are not the Urus of
Julius Caesar, which was a good deal bigger
than the largest domesticated cattle, even bigger
than the white oxen of Umbria.
This (Fig. 10) is another animal which has
7, Cc
EXTINCT ANIMALS
become extinct. But it is not a zebra, as no
doubt some of you thought it must be. This
is the quagga, which differs from the zebra in
being striped in front only. The quagga lived
£ edie at ss Casts =
Fie. 10.—Photograph of the living Quagga (Hquus quagga)
in the gardens of the Zoological Society in 1875, now
extinct.
in South Africa, and was quite common there
until forty years ago. This photograph was
taken from a specimen which lived in the
18
THE ZEBRA
Zoological Gardens some twenty-five years ago.
Fic. 11.—Photograph of a living Zebra (Equus burchelli).
Its stuffed skin is preserved in the Natural
History “Museum. This creature has now en-
19
EXTINCT ANIMALS
tirely ceased to exist, owing to the fact that the
country over which it ranged has been taken
up and cultivated by white men. There are no
more living quaggas anywhere. This animal
has become extinguished in our own lifetime.
Zebras (Fig. 11), however, are still common
enough in Africa, with their beautiful stripings
on the head, and on the fore as well as on the
hind regions of the body and legs.
Here is an animal which, it is feared, is
becoming extinct—the giraffe (Fig. 12). In
South Africa it has become extinct already.
But sportsmen now seek it in Equatorial Africa.
It is still existing in great numbers in that region,
and we hope now will be properly protected
by Government. Two new and well-mounted
specimens have recently been put in the Natural
History Museum. The neck of the giraffe is
often represented as growing up from the body
with a graceful curve, as is seen in the neck of
the swan. But the true position of the neck is
as you see here (Fig. 12). The specimens in the
Natural History Museum shows this properly.
This is a picture (Fig. 13) of a curious creature,
an animal known as the sea-cow, found in the
Aleutian Islands, between North America and
20
THE GIRAFFE
Asia. It was discovered by the traveller-
Fic. 12.—Photograph of two giraffes from life, showing
the natural carriage of the head and neck.
naturalist Steller in the eighteenth century.
It was no sooner found than sailors went to the
21
EXTINCT ANIMALS
islands where it existed, knocked it on the head
and ate it, and in about ten years it ceased to
Fic. 13.—Steller’s drawing of the Sea-cow discovered by him,
and called Rhytina Stelleri. The animal was twenty feet
long.
exist. This picture is from Steller’s drawing.
It is an enormous creature, some twenty feet
Fic. 14.—Photograph of a skull of Steller’s Sea-cow, from
a specimen in the Natural History Museum.
long, and in shape something like a seal. But
it is not in reality a seal or a whale, but belongs
22
THE GREAT AUK
to a peculiar group of vegetable-feeding marine
animals, the Sirenians. It has a small head,
flipper-like fins, no hind limbs, and a fish-like
tail.
Fic. 15.—The Great Auk or Gare-fowl (Aica ampennis). Photo-
graphed with its egg, from the specimens in the Natural
History Museum.
The skull of the same animal is shown in Fig.
14. It has no teeth, but instead bony plates.
This is the picture of a celebrated animal
(Fig. 15)—for you must understand that birds are
animals. You will have been handed a list of the
groups of animals (see the end of this chapter).
9
2 eo)
EXTINCT ANIMALS
T shall not have space to explain it at any length,
but it gives the division of animals into groups
and their relation one to another. It shows
how they are classified, so that I need not refer
to the classification again.
This picture (Fig. 15) is the portrait of an
interesting bird, the Great Auk. It is only
about 23 feet high. It is like the penguin
in appearance, but it is really related to the puffin
and albatross. Fig. 154 shews the egg, which
from time to time in the newspapers, we
read of as being sold to enthusiastic egg-
collectors for as much as £300. Nearly a
hundred specimens of the egg of this bird are
known, for it only became absolutely extinct
some sixty years ago. It used to be found on
the rocky islands off the North of Scotland,
Shetland, Iceland and Greenland. But it has
now absolutely ceased to exist. It is very
difficult to say why it died out, for it had not
been hunted down. Since it has become extinct
we have been able to get to know about it by
finding its skeleton buried in sand and guano
in certain places on the coast of Newfoundland.
Here (Fig. 16) is another creature, the dodo,
a bird which, like Steller’s sea-cow, became
24
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EXTINCT ANIMALS
extinct almost as soon as it became known. It
was found in the island of Mauritius by the
earlier explorers, first the Portuguese and then
the Dutch. The bird was incapable of flying,
Fic. 16.—Reproduction of a picture of the Dodo, painted by
Roland Savery from life, in 1626. The bird was about
three feet long from beak to tail.
as it was too fat for its little wings to lift it from
the ground. It was knocked on the head by
the sailors and worried by the pigs they intro-
duced, and was soon exterminated. About the
beginning of the seventeenth century, between
26
THE DODO
1610 and 1620, specimens were brought alive
to Europe and were exhibited as a show. We
once possessed at Oxford a stuffed specimen,
secured by that ingenious and worthy gentleman
Fic. 17.—A nearly complete skeleton of the Dodo, put together
from bones collected by Mr. George Clark in a marshy
pool in Mauritius. In front is seen the dried foot of a
specimen which was brought alive to Europe about the
year 1600. The foot andjthe skeleton are in the Natural
History Museum.
Mr. Elias Ashmole, who gave his collections to
the university 250 years ago. But asit became
mouldy and eaten by insects, it was ordered, a
hundred years ago, by the Vice-Chancellor and
27
EXTINCT ANIMALS
Proctors of the University of Oxford, that the
specimen of the dodo should be destroyed. They
do not like mouldy things at Oxford. But the
curator cut off the head and one foot, and kept
them. This head and foot, together with another
foot in London, anda skull in Copenhagen, are
about all we have left of dodos seen in the living
state by Europeans. But since the dodo _be-
came extinct, by digging in the mud of a lake
in Mauritius skeletons and bones of it have
been found (Fig. 17).
This (Fig. 18) is another interesting creature,
whose kind is on the way to extinction. It
is probably the oldest living terrestrial animal.
It was brought from the Seychelles, where its
kind is rapidly becoming extinct. In different
oceanic islands such tortoises have been found
of large size. This specimen was brought in
1764 to the island of Mauritius, and is still alive
there. Thus it has been 140 years in captivity
in the Court House Garden, in the Mauritius ;
and how old it was when brought there it is
impossible to say.
A question of great interest is—** What
makes animals become extinct ?”’ It is obvious
in many cases that another animal, Man, inter-
28
WHY DO ANIMALS BECOME EXTINCT?
feres. He either kills and eats animals, or takes
their food from them, or occupies their ground,
or cuts down the forests in which they live, and
so on. But before man appeared on the scene
there were changes going on, and different
Fie. 18.—The living Giant Tortoise of the Court House,
Mauritius, more than 150 years old.
kinds of animals succeeded one another. We
know this by finding the remains of different
animals at different depths in the crust of the
earth, in the different strata which have suc-
ceeded one another. The cause of these
changes, the cause of the extinction of animals,
29
EXTINCT ANIMALS
is a very elaborate and difficult question, and
one which I do not propose to deal with at any
length. It is connected, of course, with the
whole doctrine of the origin of the different
kinds of animals. We all recognize now that
there has been a gradual development of the
different forms of animals by natural birth,
from ancestral forms more or less like themselves.
But the more remote we get from the present
day, in the line of descent, the less like are the
ancestors to the present form. The original
parental forms have given rise to very different
branches of “descent. The descendants of one
ancestral form‘ have branched out in different
directions: just in the same way as some
person named Smith at the time of the Con-
queror has ‘given rise to all sorts of Smiths.
Some of them perhaps are still actually metal-
workers, others have become Ministers of State
and Right Honourable judges; others have
great possessions; but they can all be traced
back to the one original Smith. So many living
animals of various appearance and form can be
traced back to one ancient ancestral form, and
these again to other more primitive ancestral
forms.
CHANGES OF LAND AND WATER
The reason why the ancestral forms died
out is really connected with the general change
in the surface of the earth. New forms have
gradually taken the place of the old forms—for
no piece of land remains the same for many
years. A thousand years, as I have said, in
this matter is merely nothing, but even in a
thousand years we get great changes in the
surface of the land. Land may rise far above
the sea, and what was an island become part of
a continent. And what was part of a continent
may partly sink, and become an island—that is,
the connexion between it and the continent may
become covered with water; and then the
conditions of life for the animals are very much
changed. Such currents as the Gulf Stream
are affected by this alteration in land and
water. Were certain changes to take place,
the warm water of the Gulf Stream would no
longer warm certain land; the climate would
become colder than the animals have been
accustomed to. The animals that could not
stand the cold would die out, whilst those that
could stand the cold would flourish.t All I
+ A fish—the Tile-fish—living in the Atlantic, near the
North American coast, was destroyed in this way a few
31
EXTINCT ANIMALS
would say is that changes in the disposition of
land and water have been a great cause in
changing the forms of animals and in bringing
about the extinction of one set and the flourish-
ing of another set. That this rising and sink-
Fria. 19.—The ruins of the ancient Roman Sanne buildings
at Puzzuoli (Puteoli) near Naples. The three celebrated
columns are seen on the left.
ing of the surface of the land really takes place
I will try now to give you evidence.
Here (Fig. 19) is the photograph of the
Temple at Puzzuoli, near Naples, on the shore
years ago by millions. It was feared it might have become
extinct, but the cold current having again changed, its
numbers have increased once more.
Lr.
Of
THE ROMAN REMAINS AT PUZZUOLI
—___
Fic. 20.—One of the three columns of the “‘ temple” at
Puzzuoli showing (a) the portion eaten into by boring
marine clam-shells, (6) the upper part, which was not
submerged, and (c) part which was probably covered up
by sea-sand and mud during submersion.
EXTINCT ANIMALS
of the Gulf of Naples. This has been celebrated
for something like eighty years, ever since Mr.
Babbage carefully examined and described it,
and thus caused it to be largely visited by
geologists. In common with most geologists,
I have had the pleasure of visiting it. The
three standing columns have marks of dis-
coloration up to a certain height. The lower
part, as shown in the diagram (Fig. 20), is
full of little holes in which tiny sea creatures
have burrowed holes in which there are small
shells. This is so defined that it is certain these
columns have stood in sea water up to that
line. The evidence of that is quite complete.
These columns formed part of a Temple or
public palace in the great Roman town of
Puteoli, which had in front of it a Roman road
along by the sea-shore. Between the temple
and the sea was the road. Now in Roman
times that temple stood complete and very
much in the same position relatively to the sea-
level that it does to-day, but rather higher up.
Mr. Giinther, of Oxford, examining the shore-
line carefully, has found covered over by the
sea the remains of the Roman road, and the
remains of great blocks to which ships were
34
THE ROMAN TOWN PUTEOLI
moored when they brought their wares to the
town of Puteoli. I have here made a drawing
of the town and the great public palace as it
must have appeared in Roman times (Fig. 21).
In the distance is the island of Nicida; in the
foreground we have the palace and the town, the
7
Fie. 21.—Puzzuoli or Puteoli in the time of the Roman Empire
(third century). The dock and public buildings are repre-
sented.
quay and harbour. Things existed thus in the
days of the Roman empire, in the third century
of our era. Then earthquakes occurred, the
columns were broken, the city sank beneath the
sea. Wehave no written history of this town.
But it is known that in the Middle Ages, in the
39
EXTINCT ANIMALS
eighth or ninth century, the whole of the coast
of this part of Italy had sunk many feet, and
the columns were broken and standing in the sea.
This is the appearance then presented by Puteoli
(Fig. 22). The coast had sunk; the remains
of the road were covered by sea, and also the
Fig. 22.—Puzzuoli in the ninth century, showing the sub-
mergence of the land and the columns of the ruined
temple or palace standing up in the sea.
remains of the columns up to the height marked
a on the diagram (Fig. 20). The whole land
must have sunk as much as torty feet,
since the temple or palace stood on high ground
originally. Then it was that, while they were
under water in the ninth century, the columns
6
iS)
THE MODERN PUZZUOLI
were bored into by sea-shells. Now some more
centuries have elapsed; the ground has risen
again until we have the condition shown in the
photograph (Fig. 23), which gives a general
view of the same region as that drawn by the
use of the imagination in Figs. 21 and 22. The
Fic. 23.—Photograph of Puzzuoli at the present day showing
the three columns of the so-called temple of Serapis, as
now seen after the retreat of the sea due to the re-elevation
of the land.
land rose again from the water. But the sea
left its mark on the columns, showing exactly
how deeply they were merged in the intervening
centuries.
This is considered one of the clearest and
most direct proofs of the changes which take
ays
D4
EXTINCT ANIMALS
place in the level of the ground. The change
need not be a continuous or a rapid one. It
took some two or three centuries for that temple
to sink into the water, and a few more centuries
for it to come out again.
Such movement is always going on. It does
not occur very obviously on our own coast. It
can be seen to some extent on the Devonshire
coast at Plymouth. You get evidence of it in
what are called raised beaches above the level
of the ocean. In Norway this kind of thing is
very obvious. In South America it is going on,
and has been going on at an enormous rate for
the last thousand years. Probably a great
part of the height of the Andes has been acquired
within the last few thousand years by rapid
rising. When the original sailors landed on
the coast of Chili in the sixteenth century or
thereabouts they are said in one spot to have
chiselled on the rocks an inscription. Here
you see an imaginary sketch of them doing so
(Fig. 24). It is said, but I cannot find any
accurate record of it, that such inscriptions have
been discovered now, raised high up on the cliff
(see Fig. 25). We know that many kinds of sea-
shells are found 200 and 300 feet up the cliffs
38
“
THE COAST OF CHILI
in this part of the world. According to the
observations that have been made, the original
inscription which we see the sailors cutting in
Fig. 24 would, after 300 years, be found high
and dry some 150 feet up the face of the cliffs.
On the coast of South America there is good
Fic. 24.—Imaginary view of Spanish sailors carving an
inscription on rocks at sea-level in 1600 a.p., on the
Chilian coast.
reason for believing that a movement upwards
goes on at the rate of half a foot to a foot a year.
If such a rising continued for a thousand years
we should find that the original shore-line had
risen 500 feet above the sea-level.
39
EXTINCT ANIMALS
What, then, is the general result of such move-
ment? I will show you what would be the
result of elevating the shore of England (the
whole of this part of the world) 600 feet.
From this map (Fig. 26) you will see that if the
Fic. 25.—The same rocks as they would appear in 1900, raised
150 feet above the sea-level by an imperceptible movement
of six inches a year.
floor of the ocean were raised 600 feet, the
cross-shaded area would become dry land, and
we should be brought by land into contact with
the neighbouring continent and islands. And
if the land were raised 3,000 feet we
should have a still greater extension of dry
40
ny
Jerbishire & Slantfora, lo ine Usford Geog Institut
Fic. 26.—Map to show the effect of elevation of the earth’s
surface on the distribution of land and water in Western
Europe. The dowbly-cross-shaded area shows what would
become dry land if the sea-bottom were raised 600 feet.
The Channel, the German Ocean, the Baltic and the Irish
Sea, cease to exist. The smaller dotted area would become
dry land if the sea-bottom rose another 2,400 feet. Men
could then walk from Scotland to Iceland by way of the
Shetlands and Faroe Islands. Most noticeable is the great
change which would be brought about by the comparative-
ly small rise of 600 feet, and the much greater elevation
required to change any further the contour of the land.
41
EXTINCT ANIMALS
land. Even the smaller change would make Eng-
land part of the Continent of Europe.
The study of extinct animals found in the
various strata of the earth enables one to
arrive at a notion of the distribution of land
and water in past time. Here is an arrange-
ment of land and water which we are able
to conclude must have existed in Europe in
what is called the Middle Tertiary period (Fig.
27). All this darker part is the sea, and the
pale part land: in fact, the distribution is
quite different from what it is at the present
time. The whole surface of the earth has
been shifting and changing all through time.
During the millions and millions of years of
past ages, different seas have arisen, different
continents, different dry land and different
animals,—changed by the various influences of
the land and climate. And all this movement
is accomplished by the slow cracking and ‘‘ curl-
ing” of the earth’s crust, by the continual wash-
ing of the surface of the land by rain and rivers,
by the eating away of the edge of the land by the
waves of the sea. This “eating away” of the
land by the sea—quite apart from any sinking
of the land-level—has caused and is yearly
42
ANCIENT LANDS AND SEAS
causing great loss of land on the east coast of
England, especially in Suffolk, where the great
city of Dunwich has been swallowed up by the
sea. In other parts the sea throws up sand and
iN
¢
;
AU
Al
q
Fic. 27.—The real test of Geology: anattempt to determine
the distribution of land and water in past ages. The
period here shown is the Oligocene or Middle Tertiary, the
area is that of our present Europe. The sea is shaded,
the land areas are left white. Central and Southern
Europe was a sea, with a few large isiands in it. North
Europe formed a continent including the British Islands
and Iceland. (After Lapparent.)
adds miles of new land to the coast. The
immense quantity of stuff which is carried off
the surface by rains and rivers is difficult at
first to imagine. Taking the river Thames at
Kingston, it is found that something like 500,000
43
EXTINCT ANIMALS
tons of solid salts of lime in solution is
carried every year past that spot. Now a
cubic block of limestone measuring a yard in
each dimension weighs about two tons. Accord-
ingly, 250 thousand solid cubic yards of
rock are carried past Kingston every year
by this little river! Enough to build a new
St. Paul’s Cathedral every year! Think, then,
what must be the enormous quantities of solid
matter dissolved and carried away by such
rivers as the Mississippi and the Amazon. And
remember that in addition to this dissolved lime-
stone there is almost as large a bulk of fine sand
and mud carried along by most rivers! What
becomes of it? It is deposited in layers, and
forms what we call stratified rock. You see it,
some of it, on the seashore when the tide goes
back, in the form of layers of sand, but most of
it is deposited far out in the deep bottom of the
sea—the lime being taken out of solution by
shell-making plants and animals. But where the
land is rising, the sand or ground which is ex-
posed when the tide goes back, would after afew
years have been raised away from the sea and
become hard rock. Layer after layer is imposed.
and raised from the sea bottom. Without
44
STRATIFIED DEPOSITS
going into detail we may accept as a fact
that this formation of layers by stuff
brought down from the land by rivers and
washed from the coast-line by the sea waves
gives rise to what are called “ stratified de-
posits.” I will now show you some pictures of
this stratification. Here (Fig. 28) are shells
a.
— ra <= i = 5 - ~- = = y
Fic. 28.—Photograph of a slab of Bognor rock (Lower
Eocene) showing embedded marine shells.
embedded in the Bognor rocks deposited some
thousand million years ago; there are many
sorts of shells, whelk-like shells and _ volute
shells embedded here.
Whole skeletons of animals are sometimes
45
EXTINCT ANIMALS
found in the stratified deposits. This one (Fig.
29) is from stratified rock which forms the hills
round Paris, the calcareous rocks of Mont-
martre.
Next let us see what fine mud will do in
Fic. 29.—Skeleton of a tapir-like animal (Paleotherium) as
found embedded in calcareous rock at Montmartre, Paris.
preserving the impression of delicate structures,
such as the wings of insects. Here are the
wings of a dragon fly (Fig. 30), preserved in very
ancient stratified rock, the Carboniferous.
Here (Fig. 31) are the wings of the Pterodactyle
46
FOSSILIZED WINGS
Fre. 30.—Wings of a Dragon-fly preserved in the ancient lime
stone of the Carboniferous period or Coal-bearing rocks.
preserved in fine sandy limestone of Oolitic age.
Here (Fig. 32) we have a jelly-fish preserved ;
Fic. 31.—Pterodactyle skeleton preserved in Lithographic
limestone, showing the impression of the membrane of the
wings.
47
EXTINCT ANIMALS
you see its seal stamped as it were on the sand.
It is many millions of years old, from Oolitic
rock.
Now let us look at the layers or the strati-
fication of rocks. This picture (Fig. 33) shows
part of the cliff at Lyme Regis, where the
Ichthyosaurus-head, which I showed you just
Fic. 32.—A Jelly-fish (similar to the recent Aurelia aurita)
preserved in Lithographic limestone.
now, was found. We see the layers of harder
and softer material lying one over the other.
The next figure (Fig. 34) shows how the layers
of the surface of the earth may be bent. With-
out digging far into the earth you may reach
a deep layer of stratification or “ stratum ”
brought near the surface by the general tilting.
48
TILTING OF STRATA
This (Fig. 34) is part of the chalk cliff at Sea-
ford, showing the strata tilted, so that the
deeper layers come to the surface.
Here (Fig. 35) is part of the shore of Lyme
Regis, showing the strata exposed by the action
Fig. 33.—Alternate layers of hard and soft rock (‘‘ strata ’’)
forming the sea-cliff at Lyme Regis. Photographed by
Messrs. Dollman Bros.
of the sea. A long series of superimposed
layers one on top of the otheris seen. They are
slightly tilted, so that the deeper strata come
to the surface near the observer.
The tilting of the strata of the earth’s crust
49 E
EXTINCT ANIMALS
is the rule and not the exception. It is rare
for the strata to lie in a strictly horizontal
position. The crust of the earth is continually
being slowly pushed up or down, and as it were
‘“crumpled”’ or thrown into wave-like folds.
The cause of this crumpling is to be found in
graphed by Messrs. Dollman Bros.
the shrinking of the earth and the movements
of subterranean steam—causing earthquakes
and other earth movements. The “crust” of
the earth is a mere skin. If we bored twenty
miles into it we should come to immensely hot
50
FOLDING AND CRUMPLING OF STRATA
molten material, and on this the crust is sup-
ported. It cannot be said to “rest’’ on the
deeper matter, for it is always, though very,
very slowly, shifting and crumpling. Con-
sequently, according to the height and depth of
Fic. 35.—Strata of the ele at Lyme eee! Photographed
by Messrs. Dollman Bros.
the folds of the crust, we find that deeper, even
very deep-lying strata may be brought to the
surface, and as the upraised folds get worn away
by sea and rain and rivers, the deepest layers
may be exposed on the surface. Thus it is
that we are able to examine the oldest rocks
-
51
ANIMALS
EXTINCT
s of the immensely-
and to search for the remain
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RIPPLE-MARKS AND RAIN-DROPS
diagram (Fig. 36) will help to make it clear how
the pushing and crushing of the earth’s crust
into wave-like folds such as you may see when
a tablecloth or carpet is not spread flat, results
in bringing the deep-lying strata to the surface,
so that we can walk along a cutting or cliff and
come to deeper and older rocks as we walk along.
Here (Fig. 37) is a specimen which shows
Fic. 37.—Ripple-marks preserved in ancient Triassic strata.
ripple-marks still preserved as we see them
nowadays on the shore at low tide. The marks
of raindrops are also often preserved on such
slabs of rock, which once were soft wet sand.
On such surfaces we often find footprints, the
footprints of birds and of reptiles. In some
cases we do not know the animal itself (Fig. 38),
33
EXTINCT ANIMALS
but we see its footprints in the ancient rocks
now far removed from the sea and covered over
by thousands of feet of later rocks. Here
(Fig. 39) are the footprints of a great creature
Fig. 38.—Bird-like footprints on a slab of Triassic rock
from Connecticut, U.S.A.
from the Isle of Wight which has left its impress
in the sandstone.
In Fig. 40 we have drawn a slab of Triassic
Fig. 39.—Three-toed footprint (probably of Iguanodon) from
the Wealden Sandstone of the Isle of Wight.
54
FOOTPRINTS ON ANCIENT SANDS
rock, showing the five-fingered hand-like foot-
prints of the Cheirotherium (as it was once
called), a huge salamander-like animal.
Fie. 40.—Slab of Triassic rock from Saxony, showing hand-
like five-fingered footprints, each seven inches long,
probably due to a Labyrinthodon which walked over this
substance when it was soft wet sand. These footprints
occur also in rocks of the same age in Cheshire.
TABULAR LIST
OF THE GREAT GROUPS OR BRANCHES OF THE PEDIGREE OF
LT:
IIT.
XI,
ANIMALS
VERTEBRATA. (Back-boned Animals.)
Class 1. MAMMALS.
BIRDS.
REPTILES.
AMPHIBIANS.
. FISHES.
6, 7 and 8. Lancelets, Ascidians and
Acorn-Worms.
MOLLUSCS. (Mussels, Oysters, Clams, Snails,
Slugs, Whelks and Cuttle-fish.)
APPENDICULATES. (Insects, Crabs, Shrimps,
Spiders, Scorpions, Centipedes, and Annulate
Worms and Wheel-animalcules. )
ECHINODERMS. (NStarfishes, Sea Urchins and
Sea-Cucumbers. )
FLAT WORMS. (Flukes, Tape-Worms, Water-
flukes, etc.)
NEMERTINES. (Cord-like Sea-Worms.)
NEMATODS. (Parasitic Thread-Worms. )
ot ge to
CORAL-POLYPS and SEA-ANEMONES. ,
HYDRA-POLYPS and JELLY FISH.
SPONGES.
PROTOZOA. (Microscopic Unicellular Animalcules,
Amcebex, Gregarines, Flagellates, etc.)
N.B.—The list does not contain the less important great
groups, and is purposely made more simple than are the
tables of classification used in scientific text-books.
56
TABULAR LIST
OF THE CHIEF ORDERS OF THE VERTEBRATE CLASS
Order
tm GC bo —
14
15
16
MAMMALS.
Primates Man, Apes and Monkeys.
Insectivors Hedgehogs, Shrews and Moles.
Chiroptera Bats.
Carnivors Dogs, Bears, Cats and the extinct
Creodonts.
Pinnipedes Seals.
Ungulates Hoofed Animals: even-toed and
odd-toed.
Elephants Elephants and their extinct ances-
tors.
Amblypods Dinoceras and Arsinditherium.
Toxodonts Toxodon.
Rodents Rats, Rabbits, Beavers and Porcu-
pines.
Hyracoids The Syrian and African ‘‘ Coney.”
Sirenians The Manatee, Dugong and Steller’s
Sea-Cow.
Edentates Sloths, Armadilloes, Ant-eaters.
Cetaceans Whales and Porpoises.
Marsupials Kangaroos, Opossums, Tasmanian
Wolf.
Cloacals The Egg-laying Platypus and
Echidna of Australia.
N.B.—The list is not complete
57
TABULAR LIST
OF THE CHIEF ORDERS OF THE VERTEBRATE CLASS
Order 1
REPTILES.
Dinosaurs Huge extinct creatures, often as
big as elephants.
Crocodiles Crocodiles and Alligators.
Chelonians Turtles and Tortoises.
Lizards \ar Closely allied to one another, and
- having the epiderm moulded
Snakes | to form ‘ scales.”
Pterodacty!ls Extinct: they had great flying
wings supported by one finger.
Theromorphs Extinct: often with teeth resem-
bling those of Mammals.
Plesiosaurs Extinct: swan-necked aquatic
forms, with four paddles.
Ichthyosaurs Extinct: short-necked marine
forms, closely representing
among Reptiles, the Whales
and Porpoises of the Mamma-
lian series.
N.B.—This does not profess to be a complete enumeration.
58
CHAPTER II
STRATA AND LAND SURFACES— TEETH AND
BONES — EXTINCT MEN — FLINT IMPLE-
MENTS—THE MAMMOTH, ELEPHANTS AND
MASTODON—CLASSIFICATION OF ANIMALS
EFORE giving you further accounts of
extinct animals, I wish to point out to
you that what I have to say is true, and not
mere imagination.
Some people talk about the “fairy tales of
science.”’ There never was a more inappropriate
phrase: it is altogether wrong to speak of
fairy tales having anything to do with science.
The wonderful things which science reveals to
us are altogether remote from fairy tales,
for in regard to the tales of science you can
test what you are told, you can see the
things of which I speak, you can ascertain the
truth of what is asserted. That is the great
pleasure of this study; one knows that the
things one examines, however astounding and
59
TABLE OF SFRATIFIED ROCKS
SHOWING APPROXIMATE THICKNESS.
TOTAL DEPTHS. QUATERNARY YO .EMS TYPICAL a
DOr RECENT SSS ee MAN, MAMMOTH, MASTODON
450°" PLEISTOCENE 200 ft == SS THREE TOED HORSE
1430. — ; =50 GS TETRABELODO
2850 - purosene all EOCENZ SOO feet _—*&=_ARSINOITHERIUM DINOCERAS
———— = ANCESTORS OF ELEPHANTS :
> ——~---CRETACEOUS —~ HORSES & MAMMALS GENERALLY
Be a Fe em
53506 nae ~ ~— 2.800 ft ~— LAST ICHTHYOSAURS
zo 2G 0) 1a) 0) oO) Ol Ol OF.oO) Oo) (oslo bu GREAT DINOSAURS
SSS a3 ey | OME OO N Oe ORNS Har
re ZNOIO 1050 .0 (0) (0) 8 010: © Ove |e
we z$ BuO. ors Oot lomomegoe Er
1aa5o ae CH oO! Towoolble ©o: OsoN_ol OLOLelig
' a= a «
n THEROMORPHS
‘ace < PARIASAURUS
14.850 2
= LAST TRILOSITES
=
<
i
<
w
«
o
SCORPIONS
Ex
26850 - ae a
TTT / x
DEVONIA ny x
5,000 ft /) =
wi
31,850 ~ Gu
= FIRST FISHES
= MARINE SCORPION
re)
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FIRST TRILOBITES
65850
Fig. 41.—A tabular
view of the strata
of the earth’s
crust, showing the
relative thickness
of each “‘ system ”
or group of strata,
and the position
in which impor-
tant animal re-
m5659
mains have been
discovered. The
rocks are never
found lying hori-
zontally like this,
which is a diagram.
In nature they are
tilted and ecrum-
pled, but we can
make out their
thickness and the
order in which they
lie one over the
other.
THE SUCCESSION OF STRATIFIED ROCKS
incredible they seem, really exist, and are not
mere imagination or fancy.
I want now to refer to these large diagrams
(Figs. 41 and 42). Fig. 41 should be carefully
examined. It represents what has been dis-
covered with regard to the succession of de-
posits, those stratified deposits of which I spoke
in my last lecture. On the left-hand side is
stated the thickness of each deposit, so far as
it has been ascertained.
Most of the extinct animals, all the great
extinct animals I have to speak about, come
within the upper part. We have an enormous
thickness of stratified rock beneath, which
contains only marine things, fishes, a few
crustaceans, and things of that kind. But all
the more interesting great animals have left
their bones in the higher strata. The upper-
most layer (the recent and Pleistocene) is only
some 200 feet in thickness, yet it indicates a
period of something like 500,000 years. This
being so, you can judge by the thickness of
subjacent deposits what an immense lapse of
time is represented. Before we get to the
chalk we get down nearly 3,000 feet. The
thickness of the chalk itself is another 2,500 feet.
61
EXTINCT ANIMALS
The estimate thus given probably does not
fully represent the time which has elapsed. If
you take a thousand years for each foot, you
only get an approximate measure of the time
represented, because a great deal more time has
passed than is actually shown by the permanent
deposits or strata. Strata have been broken
up by the sea and water, and have been deposited
again and again; and it is probable that a
much longer time has elapsed than one thousand
years for each foot of the deposits which form
the stratified crust of the earth.
An important general fact, which I cannot
dwell on further, is that whilst it is true that the
great animals occur in the later stage of the
world’s history, there is a gradual succession
from simpler to more complex forms of life.
We get fishes at the top of the Silurian; and
we get in the Carboniferous great amphibians ;
and the first reptiles in the Permian; and then
we get birds and crocodiles in the Triassic ;
and the first hairy warm-blooded quadrupeds
in the Jurassic. Thus the different kinds of
animals succeed one another in the order of
increasing complexity of structure so that the
highest animals are the latest to appear.
62
THE ZOO-GEOGRAPHICAL MAP
This map of the world (Fig. 42) has special
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interest, for it shows the present position of
It is meant to show
different kinds of animals.
63
EXTINCT ANIMALS
something of the history of the migrations or
movements over the surface of the earth of the
large animals which have lived upon it. The
line which separates New Zealand from the rest
of the world, which we call Theriogzea—the
land of big animals—shows that the large
islands of New Zealand have no such animals
upon them. Till man went there some thousand
years ago there were no large animals. The
largest animals were great birds. There were no
cattle, or cats and dogs—not even mice. Thus
this piece of land seems to be separated from
the history of the movement of animals in the
rest of the world. It is an old and detached
land-surface. Then you will see a second line
between Australia and the rest of the world.
Australia is distinguished by its marsupials
(kangaroos, wombats, phalangers, etc.). The
young of the marsupials are very small when
born and are placed by their mother in a pouch
of skin overlying her teats. Those animals
which are nourished inside the mother before
they are born are of a much larger size at birth.
They are the Placentals, and there are no
aboriginal Placentals in Australia.
The greater part of the world (the rest when
64
THE ZOOLOGICAL PROVINCES
Australia is cut off) may be divided into the
great Holarctic surface, the northern strip
which comprises North America, Europe and
the Northern part of Asia, while projecting
downwards are three other regions, South
America or the Neo-tropical, the great African
or Ethiopian region, and the Oriental or Indian
region. The animals of which fossil remains are
found in the Holarctic region have migrated
into these projections of the land which sub-
sequently became of their present shape, at
different times in the world’s history.
The Neo-tropical region of South America.
was at one time a separate mass of land, and
upon it lived very peculiar animals, such as the
great sloths and armadilloes, and strange birds.
In the Holarctic region we find, either still
living or buried in recent strata, the great
hairy mammals, elephants and cattle, antelopes,
deer, camels, horses, rhinoceroses, tapirs, pigs,
hippopotami, tigers and lions, and such forms.
When we dig down only to the depth of a few
feet, in river gravels and comparatively modern
deposits, we find all the big creatures in this
region as shown by their fossilized bones. But,
owing to some change of climate and other con-
65 F
EXTINCT ANIMALS
ditions not very clear, most of them left this
region and migrated to the southern projecting
regions.
One of the most curious results of this emigra-
tion is that at the present day the tapir is found
alive in the island of Sumatra and that it is
found alive also in Central America. At one
time naturalists were much surprised to find a
tapir in the new world like the tapir in the old
world, and nowhere else but in these limited
spots, remote from each other. But now we
know that tapirs existed all over the Holarctic
region, for we find there their fossil remains ;
we recognize them by the shape of their teeth
and bones which we dig up. Even in England,
in Suffolk, we find the tapir in the deposit
known as the Red Crag, and again in different
parts of Germany, France and Greece, and even
in China and in North America, tapirs are found
buried in the sands of Pliocene and Miocene age.
The present race of tapirs existing in the East
Indies and in Central America are as it were
the outlying survivors of those which existed
formerly all over the great Holarctic region.
Such facts as these about the tapir indicate
the importance of knowing where particular
66
HOW TO RECOGNIZE BONES
fossil animals are found; for thus we are
enabled to come to some conclusion as to the
former connexion of different land surfaces of
the world with one another.
The question must have occurred to many of
you,—How do we recognize fragments of bones
found in the earth? How do I know that a
fragment I may find is the lower jaw of a
creature like the horse? or that bones I may
dig up are the bones of a tapir? How do I
know that a given skull is that of areptile ? and
that a given shell was inhabited by a creature
like the nautilus ?
We are able to know these and like matters
because the shape of different parts of each
kind of animal is very constant. The kinds
which are like one another in other respects are
like one another in the details of their bones
and teeth, even in such minute points as the
microscopic texture of the bones. An immense
mass of facts about such things is known, and
when set out in orderly fashion is termed the
science of comparative anatomy or animal
morphography.
The first photograph I have to show in this
chapter is of a piece of bone which was sent
67
EXTINCT ANIMALS
fifty years ago to Professor Owen by a gentle-
man in New Zealand who had lately arrived
there, and who had found it in his garden.
Professor Owen, on examination, was able
to say from the general make and structure
of the bone that it was the bone of a bird.
It was about seven or eight inches long (Fig.
43). On examining the ridges and various
Fic. 43.—Photograph of the original piece (seven inches long)
of a thigh bone of a gigantic bird, from the examination of
which Sir Richard Owen inferred the former existence of
a gigantic flightless bird in New Zealand. The specimen
is preserved in the Natural History Museum. (Original.)
marks on the bones, Owen was able, from his
knowledge of the character of bones, to say that
it was identical with the middle part—the ends
were broken off—of the thigh bone of an
68
SS :
Fic. 44.—Photograph of Sir Richard Owen standing beside
the restored skeleton of the New Zealand Moa (Dinornis
maximus). From a memoir by Owen.
69
EXTINCT ANIMALS
ostrich. He ventured then to publish that this
bone was a proof that there existed formerly in |
New Zealand a huge terrestrial bird like the os-
trich, only bigger. After a few years, more bones
were sent to Owen from New Zealand, which
entirely confirmed what he had said: and in the
course of a few years he was able to put to-
gether from the bones sent a skeleton with
enormous legs and neck, the skeleton of the
ostrich-like bird the Moa of New Zealand. In
Fig. 44 you see Professor Owen himself at the
side of the restored skeleton. Since that time
a great number of these birds have been found
buried in the morasses and comparatively
recent deposits of New Zealand, showing that
many of them existed alive some five or six
hundred years ago, and that they were then
probably hunted out of existence by the an-
cestors of the present Maoris. I shall have a
few more words to say about the giant birds of
New Zealand in a later chapter.
In Fig. 45 we have the photograph of a very
fine preparation in the Natural History Museum,
showing the skeleton of a man and a horse
side by side. The main object of this com-
parison is to show that, though so different in
70
MAN AND HORSE
Fic. 45.—Photograph of the skeletons of Man and Horse from a group, pre
pared under the direction of Sir William Flower for the Natural
History Museum.
Sh. Shoulder-bone. W. Wrist-bones (so-called knee of horse’s fore-
leg). E. Elbow process (olecranon). IK. Knee joint (Stifle of horse).
P. Hip-bones. TZ. Tail-bones. H. Heel-bone (caleaneum of man), the
hock of the horse.
general bearing and form, all the bones of a man
correspond in detail with those of the horse.
The thigh bone of the horse and the thigh bone
of the man, the knee (called the “stifle’’) of the
71
EXTINCT ANIMALS
horse and the knee of the man, correspond. The
man has a short foot, the horse a long one. The
upstanding bit at the back of the horse’s leg
called the “ hock” is really the heel, and cor-
responds to the heel bone which you can dis-
tinguish in the man’s skeleton. So also the
fore-arm and shoulder-blade correspond in the
two skeletons.
Accordingly, as animals are alike or unlike
in the details of their structure, so we can
group them into divisions and sub-divisions (see
the list of classes at the end of ChapterI). There
are certain marks by which it is easy to
recognize fragments of bone, dug it may
be out of a quarry or railway cutting, and
to know at once the division or kind of
animals to which the owner of the fragments
belonged. I have already alluded to the fact
that the strata of the earth are revealed to us
by cliffs on the sea-shore, by exposed rocks and.
by river banks; and I would add by such
activities of man as the digging of quarries and
railway cuttings. Suppose that you find a
skull in such a digging—there are marks by
which you can tell whether it belongs to a
mammal or reptile.
THE OCCIPITAL CONDYLES
In Fig. 46 I have photographed the whole
back part of a skull which contained the brain,
and you see where the spinal cord entered the
skull to join the brain. In this creature (an
ox) there are two bony surfaces (marked Ex, Ex)
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Fic. 46.—Photograph of the back of a skull of an Ox, to show
the two occipital condyles, Hx, Ex.
forming the joints or condyles of the skull by
which the first neck-bone or vertebra was
fastened to it whilst allowing a rotating move-
ment. All mammals’ skulls are provided with
this pair of knobs or “condyles.” But in the
crocodile’s skull (Fig. 47) you will see below
=9
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EXTINCT ANIMALS
the aperture for the spinal cord only one large
condyle (marked Bas). From such a fragment
of the skull then you can at once tell whether
to place the creature to which it belonged
among the hairy warm-blooded quadrupeds
called mammals, or with the reptiles. A bird
Fic. 47.—Photograph of the back of a Crocodile’s skull to
show the single occipital condyle Bas, lying below the hole
or foramen by which the spinal cord enters the skull to
join the brain.
is like a reptile in having a single joint or knob
at the back of the skull.
As an example of the definite marks by which
bones can be referred to their proper classes,
the following is a curious point. Fig. 48 is
a drawing of the internal ear of man—the soft
74
THE SNAIL-LIKE COCHLEA
part of the ear
bedded in bone.
three loop-like canals and a
snail-like coil.
mals have that snail-like con-
struction of the internal ear.
It consists of
All hairy mam-
inside, em-
In Fig. 49 is photographed the pre. 48 —Drawing of
ear-bone of a mammal’s skull
cut through, and you can see
the place for the snail-like soft
ear—the cochlea or
spiral of the ear, as it is called.
No other animals except the
Fic. 49.— Photograph
from a section
through the bone in
which the soft inter-
nal ear is_ lodged,
showing the coils of
the snail-shaped
space in which the
spiral cochlea lies.
the auditory organ
or internal ear of
man. A the coiled
tube known as the
helix or cochlea.
B the three tubu-
lar arches or semi-
circular canals.
internal
mammals are
known to possess a_ spiral
internal ear, and all known
If,
therefore, you discovered a
mammals do possess it.
fragment of bone showing
this spiral-like space you
would know that the bit of
bone must in all probability
belong to a mammal.
At the beginning of the
nineteenth century a portion
skull
was brought from America
75
of a great elongated
EXTINCT ANIMALS
to Europe, dug out of the sands of Florida.
It was thought to belong to a reptile like
the crocodile, and was called Basilosaurus.
But the naturalist in whose care it was, on
showing the specimen to a friend (Herman
von Meyer) dropped it on the stone floor of
his museum and cracked the back of the
skull. The crack exposed the spiral cavity or
cochlea of the ear, and thus it was shown that
the specimen was the skullof a mammal. Sure
enough, it turned out later to be the skull of a
kind of whale (Zeuglodon).
Teeth are of great help and importance in
determining the sort of animal to which a
fragment belongs.
Fig. 50 is a photograph from a specimen
prepared in the Natural History Museum. The
wild boar or pig occupies in regard to teeth a
sort of central position among mammals (hairy
warm-blooded quadrupeds). Its teeth are
such that to them you can refer, as to a standard
pattern, the teeth of all other mammals. There
are three middle teeth in front in the upper and
lower jaw, chisel-like teeth, the incisors. Be-
yond these are the great canine teeth: then
the cheek teeth follow. These are seven in
76
THEETH- OF THE PIG
Fria. 50.—Photograph from preparations of the upper and lower
jaw of a Pig, to show the teeth in position. The bone
has been cut away so as to show the roots or fangs of the
teeth. (1, 2, 3) the three upper incisor teeth of the left
side ; (4) the upper canine tooth of the left side ; (5, 6, 7, 8)
the four front molars or cheek teeth, called the premolars,
of the left side of the upper jaw ; (9, 10, 11) the three back
molars (not preceded by “ first’? teeth) of the left side
of the upper jaw; (12, 13, 14) the three lower incisor
teeth of the left side; (15) the canine of the lower jaw,
left side: note its enormous root; (16, 17, 18, 19) the
four front molars (premolars) of the left side of the lower
jaw ; (20, 21, 22) the three back molars (not preceded by
“first ” teeth) of the left side of the lower jaw.
HLF
EXTINCT ANIMALS
number, four in front which are replaced
—that means that second teeth come to take
the place of the first—and three hinder ones,
which are never replaced. If you look at the
surface of these cheek teeth you will find they
are broad, with many tubercles, fitted for grind-
ing great varieties of food. There are seven of
these cheek teeth on each side in each jaw,
upper and lower, one canine, and _ three
incisors, so that eleven on each side in upper
and in lower jaw or forty-four teeth in all is the
complete number, the typical number—the
most characteristic number in the group of
hairy mammals. Many have less, but among
the immediate ancestors of those mammals with
‘reduced dentition ’’ we find a larger number
of teeth, and in their remote ancestors the com-
plete typical number is discovered.
It is important to notice that whereas the
front teeth have a single fang by which they are
implanted in the jaw the cheek teeth have two
fangs, as shown in Fig. 51. Teeth with two
fangs appear to be peculiar to mammals. Other
animals have only single farigs to all their teeth,
as mammals have for their incisors and canines
(as a rule).
TEETH
The human teeth (Fig. 52) are reduced in
number. There are only two incisors above
and below on each side; then the small canine
Ftc. 51.—Photograph of a preparation of the teeth of the upper
and lower jaw of a Pig. The small teeth between the
upper and lower row of large teeth are the milk teeth or
‘first’? teeth which are shed. Note how small the
predecessors (15 and 23) of the great tusks are, and also
that the foremost molar (7 and 33) in both upper and
lower jaw has no successor or predecessor, as is also true
of the three back molars.
or dog-teeth, one on each side ; then five cheek
teeth or ‘“‘ molars,” two smaller and three
bigger. From a single tooth we could tell
whether a piece of jaw-bone belonged to a man
79
EXTINCT ANIMALS
or not. Though like a monkey’s, a man’s tooth
can be distinguished from it and from all other
Fic. 52.—Photograph of a preparation (in the Natural History
Museum) of the upper and lower jaw-bone of man, the
bone cut away so as to show the fangs of the teeth. The
pattern of the crowns of the molars is well seen in the
upper and lower figures.
teeth. In the next figures we have photographs
showing certain modifications in the teeth of
80
TEETH OF TIGERS AND OF RATS
mammals. You see in the Clouded Tiger
(Fig. 53) that the teeth are few in number, and
are sharp, for cutting or tearing flesh, whilst the
canine teeth are very large.
In Fig. 54 the skull of a great rat, as big asa
beaver or fair-sized dog, is photographed. The
Fic. 53.—Skull of the Clouded Tiger, to show the large canine
teeth and the few but pointed and cutting molars, two
above and three below.
front teeth (only one on each side above and
below) are chisel-like, and very large, to enable
the rat to gnaw wood.
In reptiles you no longer get complex cheek
teeth. All the teeth are peg-like. They have
SI G
EXTINCT ANIMALS
no grinding teeth with big surfaces, and all the
teeth have a single fang (Figs. 55 and 56).
Fic. 54.—Photograph of the skull of the Coypu Rat, to show
the greatly enlarged incisor teeth or “ rodent ”’ chisel-like
teeth in front, the absence of canines, and the flat grinding
molars behind. The large gap in the row of teeth between
the incisors and the molars is very characteristic.
The fossil jaw shown in Fig. 57 came from
Fic. 55.—Jaws of the Gharial, an Indian Crocodile, to show
the peg-like teeth. The bone is removed, showing that
the teeth have only a single fang each.
Stonesfield in Oxfordshire. It is embedded in
82
A FOSSIL JAW FROM STONESFIELD
hard Jurassic slate, and is one of the most
ancient evidences of the existence of a mammal.
The sight of its double fangs at once rendered
it almost certain that the teeth must be those
of a mammal: the whole shape of the jaw is
Fic. 56.—Photograph of the skull and lower jaw of a true
Crocodile. The numerous peg-like teeth of different sizes,
firmly implanted in the jaw-bones, are shown.
like that of a small mammal, such as the hedge-
hog.
We must now take up again the general story
of extinct animals; and to do so we will first of
all go back, so to speak, a little way into the
strata deposited on the earth’s surface—just far
83
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PREHISTORIC REMAINS OF MAN
enough to take us beyond the range of written
history or record, which barely reaches further
than four thousand years.
Recent explorations in ancient cities, Egypt
and other parts of the East have brought out
from layer after layer of rubbish and mud the
different remains of man, different instru-
ments, utensils and works of art. As one
gets deeper one finds remains showing different
habits and ways of life. But all are practically
within the historic period. Beyond that we
come to a period of which there is no tradition
or written record, but of which we have evi-
dence only by the remains we find; flint
instruments, carvings, and even occasionally
some human bones. The most important of
the prehistoric remains of man take us back,
to judge from the position in which they are
found, some 150,000 years. These are the
remains, found in river gravels in England and
France and other countries, proving that man
lived here in a savage state with the Mammoth,
the Rhinoceros, Hyena, Cave Lion and Cave
Bear.
Fig. 58 shows two flint implements which these
men manufactured and used. A flint instru-
85
EXTINCT ANIMALS
ment of this kind was found more than a hundred
years ago in the gravel in Gray’s Inn Lane, in
Fic. 58.—Photographs of two flint implements of the Paleo-
lithic age, obtained from the gravel-pit at St. Acheuil near
Amiens, by the author, in 1870.
London, and was figured and described ; but its
ereat antiquity was not recognized at that time.
In the middle of the last century, attention
86
PREHISTORIC MAN
was drawn to these flint instruments found in
the gravel of the river Somme by a French
antiquarian, M. Boucher de Perthes. He got
immense quantities of these worked flints from
the neighbourhood of Abbeville and Amiens,
and he maintained they were the work of men.
They were clearly, from the depth of gravel
under which they were found, of enormous
antiquity. The matter was gone into carefully
at the time; geologists and naturalists took
keen interest in it, and the great antiquity of
man in Europe was established. And besides
these implements in the gravel others have
been found in caves associated, as in the gravel,
with the remains of animals which*have long
ceased to exist in this part of the world. 4 These
are such mammals as the reindeer, the hairy
rhinoceros, the great Irish stag, the cave bear,
the cave hyena and the lion. Huge wild
cattle, such as the Aurochs or Urus of Caesar,
and the Bison, existed then in quantity. In
some places the actual bones and skulls of these
primitive men have been found with the bones
of extinct animals.
The skulls of primitive men and of modern
men show a certain difference in shape. If we
o6)
7
EXTINCT ANIMALS
take two skulls, that of a man and a monkey
(Fig. 59), and draw a line from the region just
over the nose, between the ridges of the brow,
and run it back to the occipital ridge at the
back of the skull, there is left above the line a
Fic. 59.—Photograph of the top of the skull or “ calvaria ”
of the so-called Monkey-man, Pithecanthropus, discovered
in Java. On the left is the skull of a Chimpanzee and on
the right that of a modern man, for comparison. A line
is drawn from the point between the eyebrows to the
occipital ridge at the back of the skull, showing how much
shallower the dome of the skull (the part above the line)
is in the ape than in the man, and that the Javanese
skull is nearly as shallow as that of the ape. (Original.)
great hemispherical dome in the human skull,
whereas in the monkey the space left above is
much flatter, much shallower.
In ariver gravel in Java the imperfect skull
of the so-called Pithecanthropus, or monkey-
88
HUMAN SKULLS
man, was lately discovered. It is really, in
its main features, a human skull. A_ photo-
graph of it is seen in Fig. 59—the middle one
Fie. 59a.—Photograph of a human skull of modern
Juropean race.
of the three figures. It has a shallow upper
region, much like that of a monkey. Other
shallow skulls of primitive men have been found
in caverns, such as those of Spy in Belgium and
89
EXTINCT ANIMALS
in the sand of the Neanderthal on the Rhine. It
seems certain that primitive man had a shal-
lower brain than the more recent man. But
some of the prehistoric men seem to have been
able to draw, and to have exhibited great skill
in that art. It is difficult to say whether there
was more than one race present at this time,
and whether the men of the shallow skulls were
the same men who made the drawings. In one
of the caves of France inhabited by prehistoric
men, and thickly strewn with their chipped
flints and with the bones of extinct animals
eaten by the men, a piece of a mammoth’s tusk
has been found with a mammoth carved upon
it (Fig. 60) evidently by the men who lived
there. We also find the heads of reindeer,
carved upon pieces of bone. The photographs
reproduced in Figs. 60 and 61 are from drawings
of the actual specimens. In Fig. 61 is shown
a piece of an antler upon which a reindeer is
cleverly outlined. The tuft of hair below the chin
is shown, and the great feet and the extra toes
are correctly pictured. Clearly the men who
drew this reindeer lived with the reindeer. And
besides the reindeer, living with those men in
the South of France was the great mammoth.
90
THE MAMMOTH
The mammoth was like an Indian elephant,
but with a coarse hairy pelt and its tusks had a
slightly different curvature from that seen in the
Fic. 60.—Engravings on ivory and bone made by ancient men,
who lived in caves in the South of France at the time
when the mammoth, reindeer, bear and hyzena inhabited
Europe. The uppermost figure is that of a mammoth,
the others represent reindeer.
Indian elephant. It was a little bigger than
the biggest Indian elephant.
The mammoth has left its remains all over
the Holarctic region. Even in our own country
QI
EXTINCT ANIMALS
we are continually coming across tusks and
teeth. In the Natural History Museum there
is a whole skull, with enormous tusks, which was
dug up in a brick-field at Ilford in East London
about twenty-five years ago. From this brick-
Fic. 61.—Engraving ona piece of an antler found in a cave in
Switzerland. It represents very accurately a Reindeer.
field I used to get many remains of mammoth,
rhinoceros and hippopotamus when I was a
boy. When this mammoth’s skull was found
by the workmen, the authorities of the British
Museum of that day sent down a man to remove
the specimen with the oreatest care, and it is
now at the Natural History Museum.
92
THE
MAMMOTH
)
The remains of the mammoth are found in
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enormous abundance throughout the Holarctic
It is probable that this huge beast
93
region.
EXTINCT ANIMALS
existed later in Asia and Siberia than in our
part of the world. In the north of Siberia
complete carcases of the mammoth and also of
the hairy rhinoceroses are found in a frozen
condition, with the skin, hair, trunk and soft
parts complete.
Fic. 63.—Skeleton of a male of the giant Irish deer (Cervus
giganteus) dug up from peat in Ireland.
At the beginning of the last century one of
these frozen carcases was removed to the
Museum at St. Petersburg. It is from this
specimen, drawn in Fig. 62, that we know that
the mammoth had a hairy skin.
94
THE GIANT IRISH DEER
It is an interesting fact that the newborn
young, both of the Indian and the African
elephant have a complete coat of fairly long
hair, which disappears in a few weeks. So the
mammoth is not really peculiar in this matter.
In Fig. 63 is shown the skeleton of the largest
and most beautiful of all the deer tribe; it is
now extinct, but existed later in Ireland than
anywhere else, and in great numbers. The
bones are found in the moss and bogs of Ireland.
It was co-existent with primitive man, and
perhaps survived in Ireland till nearly historic
times. Why it died out there is a difficult
thing to explain.
As our explorations into the river gravels of
only twenty or thirty feet depth have brought
us into contact with the mammoth, I propose
now to say something more about recent and
extinct elephants, and to take a glance at the
past history of the elephant tribe.
Fig. 64 gives a careful restoration of the hairy
mammoth as it must have appeared in life, and
in Fig. 65 we have a photograph from life of the
Indian elephant. In the Indian elephant you
should note the comparatively small ear and the
high forehead.
95
EXTINCT ANIMALS
Fig. 66 is a photograph from life of the African
It has a longer head and much
elephant.
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dogged.”” The mastodon’s skull (Fig. 72) shows
far more of a projecting bony face or snout
fo) ey
105
EXTINCT ANIMALS
than does that of the elephant, and this would
lead us to suppose that the mastodons are more
primitive, that is to say, more like the ancient
ancestors of elephants, than are the true ele-
phants. An interesting fact in this connexion
is that the young new-born elephant has a more
; i PLA
]
Fic. 72.—Photograph of the skull of the American Mastodon
(Mastodon americanus), from the specimen in the Natural
History Museum.
‘““snouty ” skull than the grown-up elephant,
as is shown by Figs. 73, 74 and 75. It is often
the case that very young animals show features
in which they resemble their ancestors, which
disappear as the young creatures grow to full
size.
106
NEW-BORN ELEPHANT’S SKULL
It is not only in having a more elongated
face that the American mastodon is of a more
primitive build than the true elephants. Its
teeth also are less peculiar than those of true
elephants and more like in number and shape
Fic. 73.—Skull of a new-born Indian Elephant, photographed
from a specimen in the Natural History Museum.
to those of the ordinary, more central kinds
of mammals, such as the pig (see Fig. 50 in
the last lecture). The elephant has _ two
enormous incisor teeth in the upper jaw,
in front—the tusks. There are no corre-
107
EXTINCT ANIMALS
sponding teeth in the lower jaw. Then there
is a gap in the series, and we come to the
cheek teeth, which are very strange. The jaws,
both upper and lower, are so short, and the teeth
Fic. 74.—Section of the skull of a young Indian Elephant, to
compare with the section of a half-grown elephant’s skull
given in Fig. 75, in which the face has become relatively
shortened and upright. Note in this and in Fig. 75 the
curious conical nasal bone, which is like a small bony
horn.
are so big, that there is only room for one tooth
or a tooth and a half on each side above and
below at one time. An elephant only ever has
108
ELEPHANT’S TEETH
three full-sized cheek-teeth on each side above
and below (twelve in all), and these push from
behind forwards—the first getting worn out
and pushed forwards as the second comes for-
wards, and this again wearing out and dis-
Fic. 75.—Section of a half-grown Indian Elephant’s skull,
with the first and second molar teeth in position (therefore
more than twenty and less than twenty-five years old).
appearing as the third pushes itself into place
from the back of the jaw. Three little “ milk
teeth ’’ or first-teeth of the molar series precede
these on each side above and below, and are
lost one after the other—between the second
109
EXTINCT ANIMALS
and fifteenth years of life. The first big molar
comes into place in the fifteenth year, and lasts
for ten years, when its place is taken by the
second, which is already showing its crown in
LFr
Fic. 76.—Lower jaw of an Indian Elephant, showing two molars
on each side, the front ones wearing away as the back ones
come. up into position. The transverse ridges on the
teeth are well seen.
the twentieth year. The third comes forward
in the same way about twenty years later.
The molar teeth of the Indian elephant and
of the mammoth have a great number of narrow
transverse ridges set across the crown of the
IIo
RIDGES ON ELEPHANT’S TEETH
tooth. As many as twenty-seven of these
ridges are seen on the biggest molar tooth when
it is in place, and the whole surface is worn by
grinding. In Fig. 76 the ridges on the teeth
are shown, but not to the full number, as the
front tooth is reduced in size by wear, and the
hinder one has not yet got all its crown into
Fic. 764.—The last molar of the lower jaw of a Mammoth, in
order to show the great number of transverse ridges or
segments of the tooth (as many as twenty-two in this
specimen), a feature in which the Indian elephant and the
mammoth are closely similar.
play. In Fig. 77 is shown a photograph of the
lower jaw of an African elephant. Only one big
molar tooth on each side is in position, and it
has eleven transverse ridges. This is the most
the African elephant ever has. It will be seen,
by comparing the figures, that the ridges of the
African elephant are much wider than those
of the Indian. The corresponding tooth of the
1a tf
EXTINCT ANIMALS
Indian elephant, owing to the narrower shape
of the ridges, would have twenty-seven of them
in view when fully “cut.’? Now there is no
doubt that the increase in the number of the
ridges and their narrow form is a late and special
4 1FT
Fic. 77.—Lower jaw of an adult African Elephant, showing
molars with only eleven transverse ridges, or “ lozenges.”
character of the elephants. Their cheek-teeth
would be more like those of pigs, tapirs and
bears, if they had fewer transverse ridges.
Accordingly, in correspondence with the view
that the mastodons are more primitive in their
112
RIDGES OF MASTODON’S TEETH
characters than the true elephants, we find that
their cheek-teeth have very few transverse
ridges—from two to five (fig. 78)—and that the
jaw is relatively longer, so that there is room,
[eo I
Fig. 78.—Lower jaw of the American Mastodon, with two
molars on each side, completely cut, showing respectively
three and four transverse ridges only. Note also the
elongated form of the jaw.
not only for two complete crowns of molars .to
_be in position on each side at the same time, but
even forthree. Thus we approach nearer to the
central or “‘ typical ” condition of the mammals’
teeth which, as we have seen in the pig (fig. 50)
113 I
EXTINCT ANIMALS
shows seven cheek-teeth in position on each side
in each jaw at once—of which the front ones are
second-teeth and were preceded by milk-teeth
—whilst the three big back ones are not pre-
ceded. In tracing the ancestry of living mam-
mals through extinct ancestors of different suc-
ceeding geological ages, we expect to find even
the strangest and most curiously modified
creatures, such as are the elephants in regard to
their teeth and jaws and the horses in regard
to their toes—preceded by forms which bring
us nearer and nearer, as we recede into the past,
to a sort of common form or “type” of the
mammalian group—a_hairy-coated creature,
with five toes on each foot, the typical dentition
or tooth series of three incisors, one canine,
four front or fore-molars, and three back molars
on each side of each jaw, with three or four
tubercles or knobs on the crowns of the molar
teeth. And we do not expect this remote an-
cestor to be very big—not much bigger than a
dog—since great size is a peculiarity implying
long and special predominance.
A further point in which the American masto-
don is more like the ordinary run of mammals
than are the elephants, is that it has front teeth
II4
THE LONG-JAWED MASTODON
—a single pair—in its lower jaw when it is quite
young. These drop out in the American masto-
dons, but we have here a photograph (Fig. 79)
of the skeleton of a much older mastodon, the re-
mains of which were dug up in strata of the
Middle Miocene (not only below Pleistocene, but
Fie. 784.—Molar teeth of Mastodon arvernensis, photographed
from specimens found in the Red Crag of Suffolk. These
molars have five transverse ridges : that on the left shows
the bony fangs beneath the crown of the tooth.
below Pliocene and below Upper Miocene) in
France. This skeleton is preserved in the Museum
of Paris, where the photograph was taken. You
will see that its head differs in many ways from
that of elephants and the late American masto-
don. It has an extraordinarily long lower
II5
EXTINCT ANIMALS
jaw, with two tusks init. A drawing of the side
view of the skull is shown in Fig. 80, and you
(Tetrabelodon)
see Ss
esr
LS
=]
gi Bh
Y
Aa? As
is
Ee Ege Are
79.—Photograph of the complete skeleton of Mastodon
F ta.
can see how the two horizontal lower teeth
must have played between the two curious
downwardly-bent tusks of the upper jaw.
116
angustidens, from the Miocene strata of the South of France; taken from the
specimen as it now stands in the Museum: of the Jardin des Plantes in Paris.
THE LONG-JAWED MASTODON
By way of parenthesis I must here mention
a mastodon-like creature of the same age—
which had no tusks in the upper jaw, but two
huge tusks in the lower jaw, which is bent
downward. This is the Dinotherium, found in
the Miocene in Germany and other localities.
It seems to have left no modern representatives,
- Fig. 80.—Restored representation of the skull and lower jaw
of Mastodon (Tetrabelodon) angustidens from a drawing
prepared by Dr. Henry Woodward, F.R.S.
and is a sort of extinct side-branch of the ele-
phant family. The big tusks of the lower jaw
were probably used for raking up roots in the
mud of rivers and lakes.
The Miocene mastodon, with the long lower
jaw, is known as T'etrabelodon angustidens. The
examination of its skeleton some years ago led
me to the conclusion (as, indeed, was inevitable)
I17
EXTINCT ANIMALS
that it could not have had a depending trunk
like an elephant has and such as the short-jawed
mastodons certainly must have had. Its
“trunk ’? must have rested horizontally on the
pu
S Ae Reye, Lg
SS i, re
ae
Fic. 81.—The skull of Dinotheriwm giganteum, IKKaup, from
the Miocene of Eppelsheim, near Worms, on the Rhine.
long lower jaw between the upper tusks—and
was in fact not a “‘ trunk” at all, but an elon-
gated upper lip (Fig. 82)—representing the
middle part of the upper jaw in a soft, flexible
118
THE LONG-JAWED MASTODON
condition. It seemed to me probable that the
elephant’s trunk had originated in this way:
(Original. )
Fia. 82.—Drawing representing the probable appearance in life of the.
Tetrabelodon angustidens,
namely by the great elongation, in the first
place, of the lower jaw and upper lip and jaw,
119
EXTINCT ANIMALS
and by the subsequent shrinking of the lower
jaw and bull-dogging of the bones of the face.
Thus the elongated mid-part of the face—no
longer supported by a long lower jaw—would
gradually drop as the lower jaw grew shorter
and shorter in successive ages, and at last it
would hang down as a perpendicular trunk.
In Fig. 83 I have endeavoured to represent
this long-jawed mastodon (Tetrabelodon) open-
ing his mouth and rearing his flexible, boneless
upper jaw as does the living elephant rear his
trunk (Fig. 84). It is very difficult to form a
definite idea as to how the Tetrabelodon made
use of his tusks and horizontal “ trunk.” The
upper tusks have a sharp edge along the inner
face strengthened by enamel, so that it is
probable that, working against the tough skin
pads of the lower jaw, they would serve for
cutting vegetable matter.
My friend Rudyard Kipling has given a
different account of the origin of the elephant’s
trunk, which he declares was formed by the
pulling of the nose of an unfortunate young
elephant which, before the days of trunks, stopped
to drink some water from a pool, and was seized
by an enormous crocodile just about the nose.
120
ORIGIN OF THE ELEPHANT’S TRUNK
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EXTINCT ANIMALS
The elephant pulled, and the crocodile held
firm, and the result was the stretching of the
elephant’s nose till it became a trunk. This
story was not told to Mr. Rudyard Kipling by
the boy Mowgli of the Jungle Book, who I feel
sure must have heard from the elephants the
Fic. 84.—Drawing of the head of the African Elephant
with up-lifted trunk.
history as I have given it unless, as is not un-
likely, they have forgotten all about the way in
which their trunks grew, and would reject, as
most men and women do, the notion that they
have been derived by slow change in long ages
of time from other and more simple animals.
122
THE ORIGIN OF ELEPHANTS
The history, suggested above, of the gradual
production of the elephant in the later ages of
the world’s history from a long-jawed creature
has been wonderfully confirmed by the dis-
coveries made in Egypt within the past four
years by my friend Dr. Andrews, who is one of
the staff of the Natural History Museum. Dr.
Andrews was in Egypt four years ago on account
of his health and joined a party of the officers
of the great survey of Egypt, organized by Lord
Cromer, in a visit to the Great Western Desert,
the rainless, sandy waste lying west of the Nile,
not very far from what is now called the Fayum,
and where in Roman days was the great Lake
Meris—now dried up to a mere brine-pool, in
the salt water of which the freshwater fishes of
the Nile still live. The surveying party in-
tended to determine the geological age of these
sands, which stretch for hundreds of miles, often
rising into cliffs which are cut sharp by the
wind and show horizontal stratification. Some
fragments of bone had been recorded from this
region twenty years ago by the traveller
Schweinfurth, and Dr. Andrews, who is a
special expert and authority in the interpreta-
tion of fossil bones, was hopeful of securing
PID)
123
EXTINCT ANIMALS
some specimens for the Natural History Museum.
He was rewarded far beyond his expectations.
The party had to travel into an absolute desert
waterless region, establishing a staff of camels
which daily brought up water as far as three
days’ march into the sandy wilderness, return-
Pe A
Fic. 85.—A scene in the Fayum Desert, showing the remains
of silicified trees, embedded in the sands. From a photo-
graph by Dr. Andrews.
ing with empty tanks on their backs to fetch
more. In Fig. 85 is reproduced one of many
photographs taken by Dr. Andrews. It shows
the flat sandy desert with some fossilized lumps
lying in the sand which are the remains of trees.
The geologists determined that the sands in
124
THE FOSSIL ANIMALS OF THE FAYUM
this region were of Upper Eocene and of Miocene
age, and from them Dr. Andrews brought home
some very interesting bones. These included
remains of a more primitive mastodon than any
as yet known and of an animal which he called
Meritherium (after Lake Meris)—which is the
connecting link between elephants and the
central typidentate mammals. But the col-
lection included also remains of great carnivores,
of Hyrax of great size (like the Syrian coney), of
Sea-cows (Sirenians), and of Tortoises, and a
Snake sixty feet long. The Egyptian Survey
has since in the most enthusiastic way sent
further expeditions into this desert to collect
the bones of the extinct animals half-buried
there, and Dr. Andrews, by the direction of the
Trustees of the British Museum and further
assisted by a generous donation from Mr.
de Winton, has twice again in succeeding years
camped out in the desert and excavated the
sands by the aid of a troop of native diggers.
In regard to the history of elephants, the
upshot of Dr. Andrews’ most important dis-
coveries is that we find living here in the Upper
Eocene period (older than the German or
French Miocene with its Tetrabelodon) an
125
EXTINCT ANIMALS
elephant ancestor of the mastodon kind to
which Dr. Andrews has given the name Palzo-
mastodon. The skulls and many limb-bones of
Fig. 1
Fig. 4
Fic. 86.—Profile views of a series of Elephant ancestors, from
drawings by Dr. Andrews. 1. The Indian Elephant.
2. The American Mastodon. 3. The Miocene Tetrabelo-
don (France). 4. The Eocene Paleomastodon (Egypt).
5. The Eocene Meritherium (Egypt).
this interesting creature have been obtained,
and are now reposing, some in Cromwell Road
126
THE ANCESTORS OF ELEPHANTS
and some far away in the fine Museum of the
Egyptian Survey in Cairo. In Fig. 86 a
drawing (No. 4) is given of the skull of
this Paleomastodon. The _ figure includes
several other elephant forms. We have the
skull and lower jaw of Tetrabelodon (No. 3),
of the American mastodon (No. 2), and of the
Indian elephant (No. 1). It will be seen at
once how completely the Palzeomastodon skull
fills in the series leading back from the bull-
dog-faced elephants with short jaws to or-
dinary mammals. It has a fairly long skull
and long bony face, with two large—but not
_very large—downwardly directed tusks. The
jaws are long, but the lower one not so exces-
sively long as that of Tetrabelodon (No. 3),
and the cheek-teeth are there in nearly full
number—as many as five in each half of each
jaw. These are well seen in the view of the
lower jaw given in Fig. 87 (No. 2), where the
condition of the lower jaw of Paleeomastodon is
clearly contrasted with that of Tetrabelodon
(Mastodon angustidens, No. 3).
In Paleomastodon we have arrived, by
passing as far back as the Eocene strata, at an
ancestral elephant-like creature which serves
127
EXTINCT ANIMALS
to join the elephant stock on to more ordinary
“normal”? mammals. I should say that this
beast was not so very big—about as large as a
Fic. 87.—Lower jaws of extinct Elephants, from drawings by
Dr. Andrews. 1. The lower jaw (and above it the upper
jaw) of Meritherium, showing six molar or cheek-teeth in
position. 2. The lower jaw of Paleomastodon. 3. The
lower jaw of Tetrabelodon. (Compare with the lower
jaws of more recent forms shown in Fig. 76, 77 and 78.)
fair-sized horse. Dr. Andrews’ great triumph,
however, is the discovery of a somewhat
smaller animal in the same deposits, which is
undoubtedly an elephant, and yet at first sight
128
THE EARLIEST ELEPHANT ANCESTOR
has no resemblance to one and probably had
no trunk at all, as certainly it had only small
Fic. 88.—Profile and palatine views of the skull of Meritherium
Lyonsi, as restored by Dr. Andrews. Note the elongated
form of the skull and the normal development of teeth,
viz. six incisors (above), a right and left small canine and
six molars on each side (above and below).
tooth-like tusks, unworthy of comparison with
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130
THE EARLIEST ELEPHANT ANCESTOR
the great ivory columns of later elephants.
This is the Meritherium seen in Fig 86 (No. 5),
and more fully exhibited in Figs. 88 and 89.
As is obvious at once, the skull of Meritherium
does not suffer from “ bull-dogging”’ at all;
there is a fine, well-developed facial region, and
the teeth are neither deficient in number nor
greatly exaggerated individually. The ‘“ den-
tition” (that is to say, the enumeration of the
complete series of teeth) approaches closely to
that of the central mammals with typical den-
tition. In the upper jaw (as shown in Fig. 88)
there are six front teeth or incisors, and it is
the second of these on each side which is enlarged
and is (so to speak) going to become the great
tusk of the elephants. In the lower jaw there
are four front teeth (see Fig. 87, No. 1). In the
upper jaw we also find a small canine or dog-
tooth ; next the incisors and the cheek-teeth
in both upper and lower jaw are fully repre-
sented, namely six on each side in each jaw—
only one short of the type-number. And yet.
these cheek-teeth are quite obviously and recog-
nizably mastodon teeth. They have the trans-
verse ridges of the mastodon tooth (two or three)
and are in other features like those of mastodons.
131
EXTINCT ANIMALS
Here, then, we have arrived at a form which
undoubtedly was closely related to the ancestors
of all the elephants—if not itself actually that
ancestor—and in it we see the origin of the ele-
phant’s peculiar structure. From this com-
paratively normal pig-like Meritherium, the
wondertul elephant, with his upright face, his
dependent trunk, and his huge spreading tusks,
has been gradually, step by step, produced.
And we have seen some, at least, of the inter-
mediate steps—the elongation of the jaws and
increase of the size of the incisors in Palzo-
mastodon—carried still further in Tetrabelodon,
and then followed by a shrinkage of the lower
jaw and final evolution of the middle part of
the face and upper jaw as the drooping, wonder-
ful, prehensile trunk.
4
So much for the “ great sagacious elephant ”
and his extinct relatives. Let us now turn for a
few minutes to the most beautiful and the most
helpful to man of all animals—the horse, nobler
as he is bigger and stronger and more beautifully
shaped, than man’s other animal companion, the
dog. The horse is curiously different from the
central typical mammals in that he has only
one toe on each foot instead of five, and further,
2M}
132
THE ANCESTORS OF THE HORSE
in the complex pattern of his teeth. But
immense numbers of extinct horses and horse-
like creatures have been dug up, and we now
know quite clearly all the stages leading from
living horses back to four-toed and ultimately
to five-toed ancestors. First of all I will put
Fic. 90.—Photograph of a model of a thoroughbred English
horse, by Vashtag; one of a series in the Natural History
Museum.
before you a photograph of a very beautiful
model of an English thoroughbred (Fig. 90).
There are a set of these models, both of horses
and cattle, in the Natural History Museum :
each is carefully modelled to one-fourth the
133
EXTINCT ANIMALS
size of nature. They were executed by a
Hungarian artist for the exhibition at Buda-
Pesth some years ago, and we ought to have
such a series made now in England of samples
of all the best breeds. It is the only way
of keeping a really complete and satisfactory
record, and such models of known horses and
cattle, made to-day, would be of immense
interest and value in fifty years’ time. But
they are costly things to make, and can only be
undertaken by the rich owners of race-horses
and pedigree bulls.
Fig. 91 shows us the fore and the hind foot
of the horse. As is very usual with photo-
graphers and those who prepare drawings and
lantern-slides, the artist has placed the hind-
foot in front and the front-foot behind. The
hind-foot (that on the left) shows the heel-bone
or “hock” (the caleaneum) standing forth at
the top of the ankle. Below you see the three
bones which constitute,as in our toes and fingers,
what is called the digit. Then there is a long
bone, which is the meta-tarsal bone. In the
front-foot the similar bone is called the meta-
carpal. At the top of these are several short
bones jointed together; these are the tarsus or
134
Fic. 91.—Hind and fore-foot of an English cart-horse, to show
the single toe of three pieces—or joints—and the small
splint-bones on each side of the long metatarsal and meta-
carpal bone.
135
EXTINCT ANIMALS
ankle and the carpus or wrist (so-called “‘ knee ”’
of the horse’s front-leg) respectively. You see,
the horse walks on the very last joint of its toes,
and keeps the foot and the hand upright, so
that the heel is right above the toe instead of
behind it, as in ourselves and the bears. On
each side of the long bone of both fore and hind-
foot you will see a small long bone, narrow and
delicate. The nearer one of these delicate bones
is not very clearly shown in the photograph,
but still can be made out. These delicate
e)
‘* splint-bones,” as they are called, are all that
remain in the modern horse of two additional
toes. There was a time when horses had three
toes—far back in the Miocene strata we find
horses which had three well-developed toes, each
with a hoof resting on the ground (the Meso-
hippus and Anchitherium), and earlier than
that we find a horse-like creature (Hyraco-
therium) with three nearly equal-sized toes on
the hind-foot and four on the front foot (Fig.
92). In the Pliocene we find a_ three-toed
horse in Europe known as the Hipparion (and
a similar kind is dug up in America), which had
three toes on each foot; but the side toes were
getting small, were in fact like the “ petti-toes ”’
136
THE ANCESTORS OF THE HORSE
of the pig, and of cattle, and of the reindeer.
They did not touch the ground (Fig. 93), and
Fic. 92.—Hind-foot (to the left) and fore-foot (to the right) of
the horse-ancestor, Hyracotherium. The fore-foot is seen
to have four toes in full development. Photographed
from specimens in the Natural History Museum. °
were evidently on the way to disappearing,
leading to the single-toed modern horse, with
137
EXTINCT ANIMALS
its splint-bones, as the sole representatives of
Fic. 93.—The hind- and the fore-foot of Hipparion, one of the
three-toed ancestors of the horse. The side-toes were
* pettitoes ’ and did not reach the ground.
the two outer toes. Occasionally living horses
’
13)
THE ANCESTORS OF THE HORSE
are born with two complete little toes provided
with hoofs and attached to the splint-bones,
one on each side of the big central toe, “ throw-
ing back,” as the term is, to their three-toed
ancestors. Beyond the stage, with four equal
toes on the front foot and three on the hind-
foot, which is exhibited by a quite small horse-
Fic. 94.—The skeleton of Hyracotherium, an ancestor of
the modern horse, found in Eocene strata.
like creature—the Hyracotherium shown in
Figs. 94 and 95—we can trace the pedigree of
the horse to a five-toed ancestor, the Phenacodus
(Fig. 96). The later stages of this history, from
the Mesohippus to the modern horse, have been
traced by very abundant fossil remains of many
steps or stages in the gradual change. Not only
139
ANIMALS
EXTINCT
has there been a gradual change from the three-
toed to the one-toed condition, but there has
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been a great increase in size, and moreover the
cheek-teeth have gradually become more and
140
THE ANCESTORS OF THE HORSE
more complex in the pattern which they show
when worn down. In Fig. 97 crowns of the
Fic. 96.—Skeleton of the Phenacodus, a five-toed Eocene
animal related to the ancestors of the horse.
cheek-teeth of the Mesohippus are represented,
and in Fig. 98 the crown of an upper molar of
Fic. 97.—Cheek-teeth, or molars, of the upper and lower jaw,
left side, of Mesohippus Bairdii, from the Middle Oligo-
cene of South Dakota. ae
a recent horse. There are a great number of
I4I
EXTINCT ANIMALS
interesting details in the history of the changes
of the teeth and toes of the ancestral series of
horses which it is not within my scope to
describe here, but they may be studied on speci-
mesostyle parastyle
metastyle
metacone~ Ne
,
metaconule.+
pretoloph
pete ph :
Fic. 98.—Upper molar tooth of arecent horse. A, uncut and
unworn ; PB, C, D, in successive stages of wear.
mens of a variety of ancestral horses which have
been set out for the purpose in the Natural
History Museum.
The rhinoceroses of to-day—the unicorn or
142
RECENT AND EXTINCT RHINOCEROSES
Indian rhinoceros and the two-horned African
rhinoceroses, one with a pointed upper lip and
the other with a square, broad mouth—have
been preceded by a whole regiment of extinct
rhinoceroses, whose bones and skulls are dug
up in the Pleistocene, Pliocene and Miocene
strata. In Fig. 99 is represented the complete
Fie. 99.—The skeleton of Rhinoceros antiquitatis, the woolly
rhinoceros of the late Pleistocene period in Europe and
Siberia.
skeleton of the commonest kind of fossil rhino-
ceros, the skull of which was dug up in London
the other day and is shown in Fig. 5. This
rhinoceros had a hairy coat like the mam-
moth, and is found sometimes with the mam-
moth in frozen gravel in Siberia. The living
143
EXTINCT ANIMALS
rhinoceros most like it is the African square-
mouthed rhinoceros or Burchell’s rhinoceros
(Rhinoceros simus), misleadingly called some-
times the white rhinoceros (Fig. 100). Many
of the extinct kinds of rhinoceros had two horns,
one behind the other like the African rhinoceros.
The horn of the rhinoceros is truly horny in
Fic. 100. —- Photograph of a stuffed specimen of the sue
mouthed African Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros simus) preserved
in the Natural History Museum.
substance, and fibrous. It is not bone, as are the
horns of stags, nor has it a core of bone as have
the horns of sheep, cattle and antelopes. Some-
times, however, there is a fairly big boss of bone,
which forms a sort of base or pedestal for the
horny horn. One great extinct beast (the
Elasmotherium), allied to the rhinoceroses, had a
144
ET
GaN
wal
it
f “ay
THE TITANOTHERIUM
145
EXTINCT ANIMALS
great horn, carried on a huge boss on the middle
of its head instead of on the nose, whilst in the
Miocene of North America complete skeletons
have been found of an enormous creature allied
Fic. 102.—Photograph of a skull of Titanotherium in the
Natural History Museum, showing the huge molar teeth.
to the rhinoceroses, but having a pair of horns,
perched side by side on the nose, instead of one
in‘ the mid-line, or two placed one behind the
other. The skeleton of this great beast, called
146
THE EXTINCT DINOCERAS
Titanotherium, is shown in Fig. 101, and in
Figs. 102 and 103 photographic views of the
skull are given.
As large as the rhinoceros, but having a very
different arrangement of the bones of its wrists
and ankles, and very different teeth and horns,
Fic. 103.—Side-view of the skull of Titanotherium, to show
the two bony upgrowths of the nasal region which
carried horns. Photographed from a specimen in the
Natural History Museum.
are the extraordinary creatures known as
Dinoceras, whole skeletons of which have been
disinterred from the Upper Eocene of Wyoming
in the United States. As many as two hundred
individuals were studied by Professor Marsh,
who has written a large treatise on them.
These creatures had three pairs of horns on the
147
EXTINCT ANIMALS
top of the head (Fig. 104) and a pair of great
tusks formed by the enlargement of the upper
canine teeth. The horns are outgrowths of the
bone of the skull and were probably covered by
Fic. 104.—Skeleton of Dinoceras mirabile, from the Upper
Eocene of Wyoming, U.S.A.
hardened skin. The probable appearance of
this creature in life is shown in Fig. 105.
A very interesting fact has been observed
about the brains of these most ancient big mam-
148
THE DINOCERAS
mals, viz., the Dinoceras occurring so far back
as in the Upper Eocene, and the Titanotherium
Probable appearance in life of the Dinoceras mirabile of North America.
Fig. 105.
of the Lower Miocene. We can get castings
from the interior of the skulls and compare them
149
EXTINCT ANIMALS
with those of recent rhinoceros, hippopotamus
and horse (Fig. 106), and it is found that although
Dinoceras and ‘Titanotherium were _ bigger
than the largest rhinoceros of to-day, yet they
had quite small brains, not more than an
eighth the volume of that of the recent big
animals. The subject has not been so fully
Z . oe
§
ry
6
a K
:
Fic. 106.—Photographs of plaster casts of the brain-cavity of
A, Dinoceras; B, Hippopotamus; C, Horse; and D,
Rhinoceros: to show the relatively very small size of
the brain of Dinoceras.
looked into yet as it deserves, but it seems that
modern animals, the animals which have sur-
vived, have much bigger brains than those
which died out in the Eocene and Miocene
times, and it is probable that they have survived
to a large extent because of the value to them,
in the struggle for existence, of the bigger brain.
150
THE SIZE OF BRAINS
It seems that a small brain may serve very well
to guide the great animal machine in established
ways, but in order to learn new things in its
own lifetime an animal must have a big brain—
indeed, a very big brain. And the kind of animal
which can learn—that is to say, can be educated
—will, in the long run, beat the kind which has
too small a brain to be capable of learning.
This is the significance, not only of the big
brains of recent rhinoceros and horse as com-
pared with those of Titanotherium and Dino-
ceras, but it is also the significance of the big
brain of man, which is far bigger than that of
any other animal in proportion to the bulk of
his body and limbs.
Another huge horned animal has quite lately
become known which in some ways resembles
Titanotherium and Dinoceras, but has to be
kept apart from them on account of being really
unlike them in its teeth and skull and feet-bones,
although having a general resemblance to them
in outline and bulk. This creature was found
only three years ago in the same Upper Eocene
sands of the Egyptian Fayum from which Dr.
Andrews obtained the ancestors of elephants.
The skull of this most strange animal is shown
I5I
EXTINCT ANIMALS
in Fig. 107, and a representation of what we
suppose it looked like in life is given in Fig. 108.
This wonderful beast was discovered by Mr.
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Fie. 107.—Drawing of the skull of Arsinoitherium Zitteli
(Beadnell), from the specimen preserved in the Natural
History Museum. The skull was found in the Fayum
Desert, and is nearly three feet in length.
Beadnell of the Egyptian Geological Survey,
and the name Arsinditherium was given to it
152
QUEEN ARSINOES GREAT BEAST
by him because the Egyptian queens of Greek
named Arsinde—had a palace near where
race
(Original )
Fie. 108.—A drawing, showing the probable appearance in life of
Arsinoitherium.
the bones were dug up. Two thousand years
ago many parts which are now sandy desert
153
EXTINCT ANIMALS
were well-watered and under cultivation. The
drawing given in Fig. 107 is prepared from a
skull in the Natural History Museum, where we
have brought together portions of several other
skulls and the complete set of bones of the
skeleton dug up, some by Dr. Andrews and some
by the energetic officers of the Egyptian Survey.
The huge pair of horns are entirely bony out-
growths of the nasal bones, and are hollow. aa = a
Fic. 115.—Photograph of the specimen of the Okapi (Okapia
erichsoni) obtained by Sir Harry Johnston near the
Semliki river in Central Africa. The specimen is a female,
not fully, grown, and is of the size of a very large donkey.
Africa. As they live in these immense dark
gloomy and damp forests they are very difficult
to shoot or to catch, and moreover they are not
abundant. The natives cut the striped skin
into girdles and bands for ornament. Two of
these were sent home by Sir Harry Johnston
163
EXTINCT ANIMALS
before the animal was known, and were described
as coming from a new species of zebra which
was named Hquus Johnstoni by Dr. Sclater (see
Fig. 117).
1%
Fic. 116.—Photograph of a skull of a male Okapi, showing the
simple pointed bony horns like those of the Samotherium.
The horns were not enclosed in a horny case as are those
of cattle, sheep and antelopes.
Some people, on account of the Okapi being
striped somewhat like a zebra, whilst it has the
double hoofs of giraffes and also paired horns,
have supposed that it might be a hybrid or
‘““mule ”’ between a zebra and a giraffe. This
164
NO HYBRIDS IN NATURE
is, however, a supposition which every naturalist
knows to be quite out of the bounds of remotest
probability. It is a fact that “mules” or
hybrids never are produced by animals living
in their natural conditions, except in a few rare
cases among aquatic animals whose eggs are
fertilized in the water after they have been laid.
Fic. 117.—Photograph of the two ‘‘ bandoliers ’’ cut from the
striped part of the skin of an Okapi,which, when sent home
by Sir Harry Johnston, were at first thought to have been
cut from the skin of a new kind of zebra.
And no one has ever produced, even in cap-
tivity, a hybrid between any creatures so
unlike each other as a double-hoofed and a
single-hoofed mammal.
There are a good many instances in which
small living animals were represented in the
past by gigantic forms very close in structure
to the little living beasts, but of much greater
165
EXTINCT ANIMALS
size. Hence it is concluded that these particular
living animals are the reduced and dwindled
representatives of a race of primeval monsters.
There is some truth in this, as you will see from
the history of the living sloths and armadilloes
of South America, as compared with the giant
extinct sloths and armadilloes dug up in that
country. The same relation is true as to the
kangaroos and wombats now living in Australia
as compared with gigantic extinct creatures of
the same kind (Fig. 182) which are dug up in
Australia in sands and morasses of late geological
date. Butitis a great mistake to conclude from
this that it is a law of Nature that recent animals
are all small and insignificant as compared with
their representatives in the past. That is
simply not true. Recent horses are bigger than
extinct ones,and much bigger than the three-
toed and four-toed ancestors of horses. Recent
elephants are as big as any that have existed,
and much bigger than the earlier elephantine
ancestors. There never has been any creature
of any kind—mammal, reptile, bird, or fish—
in any geological period we know of, so big as
some of the existing whales, the Sperm Whale,
the Great Rorqual, and the Whale-bone whales.
166
BEASTS OF MONSTROUS SIZE
It is true that there were enormous reptiles in the
past, far larger than any living crocodiles, stand-
ing fourteen feet at the loins and measuring
eighty feet from the tip of the snout to the tip
of the tail; but their bodies did not weigh much
more than that of a big African elephant and
were small compared with whales. So let us be
under no illusions as to extinct monsters, and
proceed to look at those of South America with
simple courage and confidence in our own day.
South America (see the map, Fig. 42) was
not so long ago a vast island and connected at
an earlier period with Australia. Later it has
joined on to North America. Its own peculiar
productions in the way of animals appear to be
the members of the group of mammals called
Edentata—very peculiar forms, with strange
teeth, and none at all in the front of the jaws.
From North America, when it joined on there,
it received the mastodons, horses, tigers, tapirs,
and other kinds produced in the Holarctic area.
This seems to have led to the dying out of the
big kinds of Edentata, and now there are only
the small tree-sloths (Fig. 118), the small arma-
dilloes (Fig. 119) and the strange-looking ant-
eaters. But in quite late geological deposits in
167
EXTINCT ANIMALS
South America we find the bones of gigantic
armadilloes and of gigantic ground sloths, which
oF
Photograph of a stuffed specimen of the Two-toed Sloth (Chola-
pus didactylus) hanging from a branch of a tree.
Fria. 118.
lasted on till the time when man appeared on
the scene, though nowextinct. A great variety
of large creatures of the kinds known as Edentata
168
ARMADILLO
THE
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169
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EXTINCT GIANT ARMADILLOES
preceded these in earlier geological times in
South America.
The Glyptodons (Fig. 120), of which there are
For the skeleton of the same
Megatherium giganteum, as big as an elephant, found in the Pleisto-
animal, see the photograph on p. 7.
cene gravels of South America.
Fic. 121.—Probable appearance in life of the Giant Ground Sloth, the
several different kinds, were enormous arma-
dilloes, as big as an ox. Like the recent little
armadilloes they carried a hard case formed by
ity
EXTINCT ANIMALS
bones in the skin, but this was not jointed so
that they could roll up into a ball, as can the
living armadilloes.
The Megatherium (Fig. 121) was nearly as big
asanelephant, and was very closely similar in its
skeleton and teeth to the little living sloths of
to-day. But it stood on the ground and pulled
the trees down in order to eat the tender young
branches instead of climbing up into the trees
and living there as the present sloths do.
Not quite so big as the Megatherium was the
Mylodon, which lived at the same time. The
remains of both are found in the comparatively
recent (Pleistocene) gravels of the Argentine
Republic. The skeletons of these animals may
be seen side by side in the Natural History
Museum. |
In Fig. 122 is represented the skeleton of the
Mylodon, and just above it, for comparison, is
placed the photograph of the skeleton of the
two-toed sloth. The relative sizes of the two
are shown and the sloth’s skeleton is placed in
the same position as that of the extinct Mylodon,
although in life it is always hanging from the
branches of trees and never goes on all fours on
the ground.
172
THE MYLODON
The Mylodon had, we know, a number of
little bony pieces scattered in its skin in the
L
Fic. 122.—The skeleton of Mylodon robustus, one of the giant
Ground Sloths of the Argentine, about as big as a large
bull. Above it is placed the skeleton of a recent Tree-
Sloth for comparison. Both skeletons are reduced to
the same scale.
173
EXTINCT ANIMALS
region of the back, like the pieces forming the
bony case of the armadilloes and Glyptodons,
but not fitted closely together. It was sup-
posed that the Mylodon, like all the gigantic
Edentata of South America, had long ceased
to exist and was extinct as long ago as the
mammoth and the woolly rhinoceros of our
Fic. 123.—View, looking outwards, from the mouth of the
cavern on the fiord of the Ultima Speranza in Southern
Patagonia, in which have been found the skin and hair
and the bones with cartilage, blood and tendon and the
dung of the Mylodon and other animals, proving its
co-existence with man and its survival until a period
estimated variously at fifty or a thousand years ago.
own country. But about seven years ago a
traveller (Dr. Nordenskj6ld) found in Patagonia,
at the end of a fiord near the Chilian coast, a
vast cavern (Fig. 123), and from this cavern the
white settlers living in a farm close by had re-
moved an enormous piece of skin (Fig. 124)
covered with greenish-brown hair and studded on
174
FRESH REMAINS OF MYLODON
its inner side with little knobs of bone (Fig. 125) !
The skin was dry, but undecomposed, and when
soaked in water gave out the smell of decom-
posing animal matter. It was evidently a piece
of the skin of a Mylodon which had survived in
Fic. 124.—Photograph of a piece of the skin of the Mylodon
(also called Grypotherium darwini) showing the coarse
greenish-coloured hair. From a specimen found in the
cave of the Ultima Speranza in South-west Patagonia.
this region until modern times! Further ex-
plorations were made in the cavern by Dr.
Moreno, of the Museum of La Plata, and by other
persons, and as a result an immense quantity of
bones were obtained and more portions of
175
EXTINCT ANIMALS
the skin of Mylodon with the hair on. The
cavern had been inhabited probably several
centuries ago by Indians, and human bones as
99
well as “ forks ” made out of dogs’ bones (Fig.
126) were obtained. The remains of as many as
Fic. 125.—The under side of the same piece of skin as that
shown in Fig. 124. It shows the small oval ossicles
scattered in the deep substance of the skin.
twenty Mylodons have been obtained from the
cavern, and many of the bones have been cut
or broken by human agency, the inhabitants of
the cave having fed upon the Mylodons and
split the bones to obtain the marrow! Some
of the Mylodon bones, skulls, jaw-bones, leg-
176
THE FRESH REMAINS OF MYLODON
Fic. 126.—Photograph of various specimens found with the
remains of the Mylodon in the Ultima Speranza cave.
1. The lower end of the humerus (upper arm bone) of a
very large jaguar (felis onca). 2. Molar tooth of an
extinct horse (Onohippidium). 3. End of femur of a
huge rat (Megamys). 4. Upper jaw of guanacho
(Auchenia). 5. Molar tooth of same. 6. Lower end of
lowest leg-bone of the rhea. 7. Foot-bone of the jaguar.
8. Hoof-bone of the fossil horse. 9, 10, 11. Dung of the
Mylodon. 12, 13. Two bones of a Dog, with ends
sharpened by human agency. 14. Distorted human
shoulder-blade, probably of a woman.
bones, etc., are smeared with blood and the
soft tendon and membrane are still attached.
The cartilage at the end of the long bones is still
177 N
EXTINCT ANIMALS
in place, dried and cracked in the drying. Not
only that, but great balls of dung were found
made up of the remains of masticated grass,
Fie. 127.—Photograph of remains of Mylodon from the cave
of the Ultima Speranza. 1. Shaft of tibia. 2. Bone ofa
claw. 3, 4, 5, 6. Claws (horny). 7, 8. Rudimentary
toe bones. 9, 10. Cervical vertebrae. 11. Lower end
of scapula. 12, 13. Broken bones.
indicating that the Mylodons lived in the cave.
Moreover, a very large quantity of cut grass
was found in the cave, and it has been surmised
178
MYLODONS LIVING IN THE CAVE
that the Indians kept the Mylodons alive in the
cavern and fed them with hay brought in from
the outside. Specimens of these objects and
of others to be mentioned below are now in the
3
Fic. 128.—Photograph of a *‘ barrel-full of bones’? obtained
by prospectors from the cave of Ultima Speranza, three
years after the first finds, and offered for sale to the
Natural History Museum. Unfortunately it was not
possible to send a reply to the owners in time, and the
collection was dispersed. Skulls, jaws, and other bones of
Mylodon are to be seen as well as a large skull of a jaguar,
and bones and teeth of horses.
Natural History Museum, and some idea of their
number and variety may be formed from the
photographs reproduced in Figs. 126 to 131.
Besides the remains of the Mylodons and of
179
EXTINCT ANIMALS
man—all lying loosely covered by a greater or
less depth of blown sand, and in some parts by
chopped hay—the cavern has yielded bones and
teeth and many horny hoofs of horses, appar-
ently belonging to the extinct and very peculiar
ne -* a+ tes “Leek ana rr ey 3 ; AF
Fic. 129.—Photograph having the same history as that
shown in Fig. 128.
South American genus Onohippidium, the skull
and bones of a very large kind of jaguar, the
skull of a young lama, and bones of other kinds.
We have not yet a full account of all that has
been found in the cave, nor have the contents,
180
THE CAVE OF THE MYLODONS
unfortunately, been removed with sufficient
care to enable us to say which were lying more
deeply in the sand and which were at a higher
level and therefore more recently living. The
cavern is in a very remote spot and seems to
Fie. 130.—Photograph of three pellets of the dung of the
Mylodon from the cave of Ultima Speranza.
offer some peculiar difficulties to explorers, for
neither Sir Thomas Holditch nor Mr. Hesketh
Pritchard, the latter of whom started for the
purpose, succeeded in reaching it. It is stated
that there are other caverns of a similar nature
181
EXTINCT ANIMALS
in the neighbourhood. A great peculiarity about
the occurrence of the remains of animals in this
cavern is due to the fact that it hasa dry sandy
bottom. The bones are not embedded in
Fic. 131.—Photographs of the leg-bone (tibia) of Mylodon,
from the cave of Ultima Speranza, to show the dried and
cracked cartilage on the ends (articular surfaces) of the
bones.
b)
*‘ stalagmite ” as is the case in the bone-caves
of England and France, and whilst they are
quite unaltered and full of animal matter, the
horny and tendinous parts of many of the
animals, such as skin, hair, claws and hoofs, and
182
WHEN WERE THE MYLODONS ALIVE?
the soft dung of the Mylodon, are preserved un-
changed. It is quite certain that in any known
cavern in Europe such remains would be
destroyed in the course of fifty years by putre-
factive bacteria, and were the conditions too dry
for that process to continue, the remains would
have been consumed by scavenger beetles and
other insects within the like period. The
climate of South Patagonia, where the cavern
exists, is similar to that of Devonshire. It isa
moist climate, although the cavern itself is not
damp nor subject to inundation by streams.
There is nothing in the sandy soil of a preser-
vative nature, and it seems at first sight impos-
sible to suppose that the soft dried remains,
skin, claws, blood, etc., can be more than fifty
years old. Yet the horses’ hoofs and bones seem
to belong to the extinct Onohippidium, and
there is no record or tradition among the present
race of Indians (in spite of some statements to the
contrary) of any huge beast corresponding to
the Mylodon. Altogether the case is a very
puzzling one, and excites a very eager desire for
further exploration. A noticeable fact bearing
on the matter is that the whole of the southern
part of South America has been submerged
183
EXTINCT ANIMALS
rapidly and has rapidly risen again and is still
rising at the rate of two feet a year in some parts,
within the late Pleistocene period. Possibly
the rocks and high lands where the Mylodon
cavern occurs formed an island during the
submergence where a number of individuals of
the earlier fauna took refuge and survived until
the re-elevation of the land, and so lived on in
the present condition of the land surface until
fifty or a hundred years ago. Possibly, though
by no means probably, the Mylodon is still
living in similar caverns in this region, as yet
unvisited by man.
In Australia, the land of the marsupials or
pouched mammals, the bones of gigantic crea-
tures have been found belonging to that
peculiar tribe. Giant kangaroos, twice as tall
as any living kangaroos, are thus known. But
there are also remains of some extraordinary
animals, like wombats and koalas, only as big
as the largest rhinoceros or a small elephant.
One of these is the Diprotodon of Owen, known
to him by its skull and the rest of the
skeleton, excepting the feet. The skullis drawn
in Fig. 132 with a human skull beside it to give
ascale. In Fig. 133 is given Owen’s restoration
184
GIANT BEASTS FROM AUSTRALIA
of the complete skeleton with the exception of
the feet. These have now been found by Dr.
Stirling, of South Australia. A number of com-
plete skeletons of this huge beast were found
embedded in the mud of a great lake or morass.
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Fie. 132.—Drawing of the skull of the Giant Australian
Marsupial, Diprotodon, preserved in the Natural History
Museum. By its side is placed a drawing, to the same
seale, of a human skull.
In the photograph (Fig. 134) the lake is shown,
and one of the great skeletons is seen in the
foreground. The bones were in a very friable
state, but Dr. Stirling has succeeded in pre-
serving them and has secured the complete feet.
In Fig. 135 the right hind-foot is shown. It
185
EXTINCT ANIMALS
is expected that the complete skeleton will be
put together and exhibited in the Natural
History Museum before very long.
Fie. 133.—The restoration of the skeleton of Diprotodon, as
drawn by the late Sir Richard Owen. It will be observed
that the feet were not known when this drawing was made.
The oldest remains of mammals, which we
know of, are found in the Oolitic and Triassic
strata and consist of very small lower jawbones
with their teeth, embedded in very fine-textured
186
AUSTRALIAN MONSTERS
rock. It is usually held, on account of the form
of the angle of the jawbones, that they belonged
to small marsupial mammals. They are very
small, few of them as much as an inch in length,
and one of them we have already seen in Fig.
Fie. 134:—Photograph of the morass or lake in South
Australia in which the remains of several specimens of
Diprotodon have been recently discovered. One of, the
skeletons is seen lying in the mud in the foreground.
57 enlarged to ten times its natural length.
It is probably due to their density and hardness
that the little jaw-bones- have been embedded
and preserved in these ancient rocks, whilst the
rest of the skeleton is lost to us. The first
187
EXTINCT ANIMALS
specimens of jaw-bones of this age were obtained
seventy years ago in the Stonesfield Slate near
Oxford by two undergraduates of the University,
and it was at first supposed, on account of their
occurring in such ancient rock as the Oolite
Fic. 135.—View of the upper surface of the right hind-foot of
Diprotodon, as discovered by Professor Stirling of Ade-
laide, South Australia. The left-hand figure has the
astragalus (ankle-bone) removed, whilst it is in place in
the right-hand figure.
(see list of strata on page 60) that they must
be jawbones of lizards. Soon, however, the
fact was noticed that the teeth had double
fangs, and it became clear from this, as well as
the shape of the jaws and teeth, that they had
188
MAMMALS OF THE MESOZOIC PERIOD
belonged to small mammals. In Fig. 136 two
of these very ancient mammalian jaws are
figured.
Fic. 136.—Lower jaws of the ancient Mammals, Dromatherium
(upper—Trias), and Dryolestes (lower—Jurassic), mag-
nified about 24 times linear.
CEP TER Wy
THE GREAT EXTINCT REPTILES—DINOSAURS
FROM THE OOLITES—THE PARIASAURUS
AND INOSTRANSEVIA FROM THE TRIAS OF
NORTH RUSSIA AND SOUTH AFRICA—MARINE
REPTILES.
N the next two chapters I propose briefly
to bring before you a few examples
of extinct reptiles, birds and fishes, and to
take the very shortest glance at the host of
invertebrate shell-fish, insects, star-fishes and
such like extinct animals whose name is legion.
We will proceed at once to the reptiles. You
will see from the list of groups of reptiles which
I gave to you in a former chapter (p. 58) that
there are four big orders or groups of living
reptiles: (1) the Crocodiles ; (2) the Tortoises
(Chelonians); (3) the Lizards; and (4) the
Snakes. The lizards and snakes are in their
real structure so much alike that they are con-
190
EXTINCT REPTILES
sidered as one double order. Extinct repre-
sentatives of all these orders are found right
away down through the Mesozoic strata to the
Trias (see table of strata, p. 60). But there is
nothing very astonishing about them excepting
the large size of some of the extinct tortoises
and snakes, and the fact that the older extinct
crocodiles had the opening of the nose-passages
into the mouth-openings, which we and all air-
breathing vertebrates also possess, placed far
forward as they are in the more primitive air-
breathers, whereas living crocodiles have them
pushed ever so far back to the very furthest
recess of the long ferocious mouth, from which
arrangement it results that the modern crocodile
can have its mouth full holding the body of a
victim under water whilst the air passes from the
tip of its nose through the long nasal passage
to the very back of its mouth and so to its
lungs. This convenience was not enjoyed by
primitive crocodiles.
The great interest in regard to extinct reptiles
centres in those which were so entirely different
from the reptiles of to-day that naturalists have
to make separate orders for them. Many of
them were of huge size. They flourished in the
191
EXTINCT ANIMALS
Mesozoic period and abruptly died out; at any
rate their remains disappear from the rocks at
the close of the Chalk or Cretaceous period (see
the table of strata, p. 60). These extinct
orders of reptiles are the Dinosaurs, the Thero-
morphs, the Ichthyosaurs, the Plesiosaurs and
the Pterodactyles. They are a prominent
example of that kind of extinct animal which is
not the forefather, so to speak, of living ani-
mals, but of which the whole race, the whole
order, has passed away, leaving no descendants
either changed or unchanged.
To begin with the Dinosaurs. They are a
very varied group and mostly were of great size.
They seem to have occupied in many ways the
same sort of place on the earth’s surface which
was filled at a later period by the great mam-
mals, such as elephants, rhinoceroses, giraffes,
giant kangaroos, etc. Preying on the vege-
table-feeding kinds there were huge carnivorous
dinosaurs, representing the lions and tigers of
to-day. Yet the mammals I have mentioned
are in no way descended from these great
reptiles. They came from another stock, and
only superseded them on the face of the earth
by a slow process of development, in which the
192
NEW ZEALAND TUA-TARA
THE
‘OZIS [BANZVU OY} JO pALYJ-o0UO SI oINSYy oy, ‘sngnj~ound uopouaydg se uMOUy
‘B1Eq-BNT, PlVZI'T puvlwoz MON oY} JO ofl] WOAy UOye, YSvo eV Jo yYdeadojoyG—/ET “DI
193
EXTINCT ANIMALS
great reptiles disappeared and the great mam-
mals gradually appeared and took their place.
Some of the forms assumed by the great
Photographed one half the natural size.
Toad),
_Fia. 138.—Phrynosoma orbiculare (Mexican Horned Lizard or Horned
Dinosaurian reptiles are not unlike the forms
of the small scaly lizards of to-day (see Figs.
137, 138, 139, 140); but on the whole the Dino-
saurs were more like mammals in shape, stand-
194
THE CHLAMYDOSAUR
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‘OZIS [eInyBU OY} paIyy
‘BIyerysny ‘puBlsuson?) urory “bury snunvsophunjyo—6el ‘OIL
195
EXTINCT ANIMALS
jo ozIs oy} jrey poydeasojoyg
“(
oanyeu
prezry popparg yeory) snaquphrbh snanuoz—'oFT “OI
196
THE GREAT DINOSAURS
ing well up on the legs. We do not know much
about their skin; it was probably smooth and
with only small horny scales on it, as in many
living lizards, and often had great horns and
crests growing out of it. But we know the
Fic. 141.—Drawing of the skeleton of Iguanodon bernissar-
tensis. From the ground to the top of the head as the
animal is posed, is about fourteen feet.
complete skeletons put together from bones
chiselled out of the hard rock in which they are
found, and we know that in important matters
of shape and build the skeleton was different
from that of living reptiles. The great size to
which some of the Dinosauria attained is
197
EXTINCT ANIMALS
shown by the thigh-bone of one found in the
United States, and called Atlantosaurus—photo-
Fra. 142.—Probable appearance of the Iguanodon in its living condition.
graphed in Fig. 6, p. 11. This thigh-bone is
one third as long again as that of the biggest
elephant known.
198
THE IGUANODON
In Fig. 141 is shown the complete skeleton
of the Iguanodon.
This great Dinosaur was one
of the first to be discovered. As you see, it stood
on its hind legs like a kangaroo, and in running
occasionally went on those feet only, touching
the ground now and
then with its front
feet. Footprints in
slabs of sandstone,
once soft wet sand, are
found showing | this.
The animal stood about
fourteen feet from the
head to the ground in
the position shown in
the figure. Its thigh
bone was only three
feet long and it was
therefore only half the
size, in linear measure-
ment, of the Atlanto-
Saurus.
Fia. 143.—Two teeth of Igua-
nodon mantelli of the
natural size, showing the
serrated margin.
In Fig. 142 an attempt is made to show what
the animal looked like when the skeleton was
clothed with flesh and skin.
The first bones
and teeth of the Iguanodon were found seventy
199
EXTINCT ANIMALS
years ago by a celebrated and most delightful
collector and explorer of the earth’s crust, Dr.
Gideon Mantell, in the strata known as the
Wealden in Sussex, just below the Chalk and
Greensand (see table of strata). Dr. Mantell
found that the teeth, of which two are here
represented of the natural size, were those of a
Fic. 144.—A portion of the upper jaw of the recent lizard
Iguana, showing the serrated edges of the teeth, similar to
those of Iguanodon.
herbivorous animal and like those of the little
living lizard from South America, called the
Iguana, in the fact that the broad chisel-like
crown has a saw-like edge (Fig. 144). From
this fact the name Iguanodon (Iguana-toothed)
was given to the new fossil giant reptile. The
bones found by Mantell and others were scat-
tered and not in their natural position and the
200
THE IGUANODON
form of the creature had to be cuessed at by
fitting this and that together. But some
twenty-five years ago a wonderful find was
made near Brussels in a coal-mine at a village
called Bernissart. The skeletons of no less than
twenty-two huge Iguanodons were found com-
plete, and embedded in a fairly soft clay-like
rock! The authorities of the Government
Museum took charge of the place and most care
fully removed the rock containing the skeletons
to the Museum workshops at Brussels, where
the complete skeletons of seven were, with
enormous difficulty and care, removed bit by
bit from the rock and set up as entire skeletons
in the Brussels Museum, where they may be seen.
A cast of one of these seven isin our own Natural
History Museum. The photograph of the skull
of one of these specimens is given in Fig. 145, It
shows not only the teeth in position, but in
front the bony supports of a great horny beak,
like that of a turtle. As you may see in the
drawing of the skeleton (Fig. 142), the forefeet
(or hands) were provided with five fingers, of
which the thumb had a huge claw on it at least
a foot long. The foot was very much like that
of a bird and had only three toes, and the bones
201
EXTINCT ANIMALS
of the pelvis or hip-girdle are extraordinarily
like those of a bird. In fact it is now certain
that reptiles similar to the Iguanodon were the
stock from which birds have been derived, the
front limb having become probably first a
f ee . ‘ =
: PRA i
Fic. 145.—Photograph of the skull of an Iguanodon as dug
out of the rock, showing the teeth of the lower jaw and the
smooth bony supports for the horny beak of both upper
and lower jaw. The specimen is three feet in length.
swimming flipper or paddle, and then later an
organ for beating the air and raising the creature
out of the water for a brief flight. From such a
beginning came the feather-bearing wing of
modern birds.
Fig. 146 shows the skeleton of a Dinosaur of
202
MEGALOSAURUS
THE
“SnINBSOl[B
SS SOS) S .
‘MOpOURNST OY} JO OZIS OY} SpaTYyy-OMY Jog’ svM TeWUITUR Ol,
Sow oy} ‘ANVsoulC] SNOAOATUIVO B JO UOJoTOHNS OY JO SUTMVIG— ‘OFT “OTT
[o>
ANG
SS
ENN
ap)
N
EXTINCT ANIMALS
somewhat less size but with the same kangaroo-
like carriage, which was a beast of prey. It is
the Megalosaurus, and had many tiger-like
teeth in its jaws. It hunted down and fed upon
the herbivorous Dinosaurs as lions and tigers
hunt and eat antelopes and buffalo to-day.
By no means all the Dinosaurs walked on their
hind legs. There were enormous kinds which
went on all fours. Here is the skeleton of the
Brontosaurus (Fig. 147) and a sketch of its
appearance in life (Fig. 148). The great Ceteo-
saurus, of which the limb bones and most of the
skeleton were found near Oxford, is similar to
this,and Mr. Andrew Carnegie has presented to
the Natural History Museum a complete re-
construction of the skeleton of a closely allied
Dinosaur—the Diplodocus—which was _ exca-
vated in Wyoming and is now in the Carnegie
Institute at Pittsburg. It is eighty feet long.
Its head is very small, and a great part of the
length is made up by the very long neck and the
very long tail, but the body is bigger than that
of the biggest elephant and the back was nearly
fourteen feet from the ground.
The immense profusion in which the bones
of these huge creatures have been found in
204
THE BRONTOSAURUS
‘SuIdoo4s YNoyYIM yoou oy} Aopun ssoy oy} JO QUOAZ UT YTV p[Noo ueUL
Vo tey pue peoy oy) jo YASUE, yeors oy} puR [[Nys oYyZ jo ozIs [[euIs AToWIOIyxO
oy} 9J0N
MoS
‘snainesoyuorg oyy"fo UoyI[oys poroysor AjToqoTduroo B JO SuIMBIGQU—'L FT “917
A
Ue Ws
oe
MS
x SS
AN
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BS
ile)
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EXTINCT ANIMALS
Mesozoic strata in the United States is astonish-
ing; no less remarkable is the skill and success
with which American naturalists—chief among
whom have been Professor Marsh of Yale and
Professor Cope of Philadelphia—have collected,
Fic, 148.
closely similar Diplodochus and Brontosaurus) in life. It
has been suggested that the animal walked along the sea
or river bottom keeping its head just above water. Speci-
mens of over sixty feet in length have been found.
fitted together and drawn every detail of more
than thirty different kinds of these monsters.
They have given such full evidence of the
structure and build of the animals that we may
with confidence accept the reconstructions of
the appearance of the animals such as those
206
THE TRICERATOPS
‘SOLQDOUTYY SUTATT YSOSAB] 9YZ JO OzIS Oy JO SBM
ayydea styy, ‘(Adoystp_ YeangeN Jo wmMosny UBoltoury oy} Aq ponsst Jopout B 40948)
sdozes0LLy, ‘anesourqy pouroy-saayy ayy Jo oftT Ut soUBAvodde 944 Jo SuImMeIq@—'6FT
oT
207
EXTINCT ANIMALS
shown in Figs. 149 and 150, where the rhino-
ceros-like Triceratops and the huge crested
Stegosaurus are represented. Such crests and
horns are bizarre and grotesque even when
carried by little living lizards a few inches long,
Fie. 150.—Probable appearance in life of the Jurassic Dinosaur
Stegosaurus. The hind leg alone is twice as tall as a well-
grown man.
but it must be remembered that the Dinosaurs
drawn in Figs. 149 and 150 were as big in the
body as large elephants.
A curious fact about these great Dinosaurs is
that they had, as compared with big living
reptiles such as the crocodiles, very tiny brains.
208
THE BRAIN OF DINOSAURS
You will remember that the extinct mammals
known as Titanotherium and Dinoceras have
brains one-eighth the bulk of living mammals
of the same size, such as rhinoceros and hippo-
potamus. So it was with the huge extinct
reptiles. In some the head itself was ridicu-
lously small according to our notions of cus-
tomary proportion, and even in others, such as
Triceratops, where the bony and muscular
parts of the head were big, as in a rhinoceros,
yet the brain was incredibly small. It could
have been passed all along the spinal canal in
which the spinal cord lies, and was in proportion
to bulk of body a tenth the size of that of a
crocodile.‘ Very probably this small size of the
brain of great extinct animals has to do with
the fact of their ceasing to exist. Animals with
bigger and ever increasing brains outdid them
in the struggle for existence.”
So much for the Dinosaurs, which might
well occupy a complete course of lectures all to
themselves. We will now turn to the Thero-
morphs, which are an older group even than the
Dinosaurs and flourished in the Trias period
(see table of strata, p. 60). The Thero-
morphs are so called because in some important
209 P
EXTINCT ANIMALS
parts of the structure of skull and jaw, and often
also in the teeth, they resemble the mammals or
Theria. They come near to a point in the
history of terrestrial vertebrate beasts which is
the common origin of Reptiles, Mammals and
Batrachia or Amphibians (newts, salamanders
and frogs).
Their remains have been found in the Triassic
sandstones and limestones of South Africa, of
Russia, of India and of Scotland and the centre
of England. One of the most striking of these
is represented by a completely reconstructed
skeleton from Cape Colony in the Natural His-
tory Museum, photographed in Fig. 151. The
skeleton is some eight feet long and looks like
a gigantic pug-dog. This is the Pariasaurus,
and is shown by its small teeth to have been
herbivorous.
From the same locality we have the Dicyno-
don with two huge tusks, and the Cynognathus
with a skull and set of teeth wonderfully re-
calling those of a bear at first sight.
Another strange crested form belonging here
is the Dimetrodon from the Permian strata of
‘Texas, U.S.A. (Fig. 152).
But I am now able to show you, through the
210
THE PARIASAURUS
"q09J JYSIO Jno” ‘[1e} 07 yous Woy YYSUOETT ‘UMESN AIO4STFT [RANZVNY oy
ur Ajoog tossojorg Aq du jos sv ‘snaneseleg Jo Uojofoys oYy yo Ydvasoqoyg—"[E] “pIy
t .
211
EXTINCT ANIMALS
kindness of Professor Amalitzky, of Warsaw,
a set of photographs taken by him, showing the
discovery and working out by him of a whole
series of skeletons of these Theromorph reptiles,
closely similar to those from the rocks of Cape
[het oS awe OS eA eee
Fie. 152.—Probable appearance in life of the Theromorph
Reptile, Dimetrodon, from the Permian of Texas. As big
as a large dog.
Colony but belonging to a locality far removed
from South Africa, namely, to the banks of the
Northern Dwina near Archangel in North
Russia. Professor Amalitzky has not yet
finished his excavations nor published these
212
THE BANKS OF THE DWINA
photographs, and it is therefore a great kindness
on his part to allow me to show them here in
London.
First of all, we have the cliff of Permian strata
on the banks of the Dwina (Fig. 153), from
Fic. 153.—View of one of the dark patches in the cliffs of the
river Dwina (the Northern of that name), where nodules
containing the skeletons of extinct reptiles are found.
which and from another similar spot the remains
were extracted. At this point, where the colour
is dark in the photograph, there is a peculiar
“pocket” or accumulation of sandy matter
with large hard nodules embedded in it. These
nodules are removed and broken up for mending
219
EXTINCT ANIMALS
the roads. The pocket seems to be in a fissure
and of Triassic age, later, that is to say, than
the Permian rocks on each side of it. However
that may be, the great nodules are removed
from it for road mending, and four or five years
ago Professor Amalitzky on visiting the spot
was astounded and delighted to find that when
broken each nodule was seen to contain the
skeleton or skull of a great reptile. Fig. 154
Fic. 154.—One of the nodules showing the form of the em-
bedded skeleton, head to the right, tail to the left.
shows such a nodule, some eight feet long, and
in this specimen one can easily distinguish the
skull, the four limbs and the backbone of a
large animal. The Russian geologist determined
to make a most thorough investigation of this
wonderful deposit, and for some years now has
spent a thousand pounds a year, obtained for
214
REPTILES FOUND IN NODULES
the purpose through the Imperial Academy of
St. Petersburg, in having the nodules dug out
by the peasants after their farming work is over
for the year, and in removing them to the
University of Warsaw, where with the finest
Fic. 155.—Peasants working on the face of the cliff near
Archangel and removing nodules containing the skeletons
of great reptiles.
instruments and greatest care the nodules are
opened and each bone removed in fragments is
put together from its more or less broken parts,
firmly cemented and set up in its natural position
and relations as part of a complete skeleton.
215
EXTINCT ANIMALS
Fig. 155 shows the peasants at work, protected
by a shed from the fall of stones from above.
Fig. 156 shows some of the nodules as yet
unopened lying in the laboratory of the geologi-
cal professor at Warsaw. Fig. 157 shows a
Fre. 156.—Professor Amalitzky’s work-shop in Warsaw,
showing skeleton-holding nodules ready to be broken
open and others already under preparation.
- number of skeletons of the huge but harmless
vegetarian Pariasaurus which have been cleared
out of the nodules and set up on iron supports,
as more or less complete specimens. Of course
it is not possible in every individual to get out
216
PARIASAURUS SKELETONS
all the bones complete, especially those of the
feet. Few of the individuals were complete
even when originally embedded in the mud
ages ago. When an animal’s body is carried
away by ariver and floats in a decomposing
state it tends to fall to pieces.
a ale
Fic. 157.—A series of siecle tons of Peas removed bit by
bit from Archangel nodules and mounted as detached
specimens by Professor Amalitzky.
The cliff formed by the present river Dwina
consists of rocks of immense, indeed of almost
inconceivable, age, and existed as solid rock ages
and ages before the surface of the earth had its
present form. These deep-lying rocks have
been brought near to the surface by bending of
257,
EXTINCT ANIMALS
the strata (as shown in Fig. 36, p. 52), and
the cutting or cliff made by the comparatively
modern river exposes them to our view and to
easy excavation. The nodules are relatively
to the age of the river-valley or cutting
(which is probably some 150,000 thousand
Fic. 158.—Photograph of a skeleton of Pariasaurus, removed
from an enveloping nodule and mounted by Professor
Amalitzky.
years old), as much older than it is as are
Roman coins older than the trench dug three
hours ago which brings them to lght. HI
you look at the position of the Trias and Per-
mian in the table of strata you will get some
idea of how immensely remote is the time when
these great reptiles lived where now is Arch-
218
SPECIMENS OF PARIASAURUS
angel, for whilst the thickness of a twentieth
of an inch suffices to indicate the accumulations
of strata since the mammoth lived in England,
the Trias is a long way down the series, far
below the Eocene, where the ancestral elephants
of Egypt are found, far below the Chalk, and
Fre. 159.—Photograph by Professor Amalitzky on a larger
seale of a skull of a Pariasaurus from an Archangel nodule.
older than the long Jurassic series of rocks in
which the remains of the great Dinosaurs we
have recently looked at, occur.
In Fig. 158 one of Professor Amalitzky’s
specimens of Pariasaurus is shown. There is
no artificial completing of this skeleton: all
that is seen is actual bone as cleaned out of a
219
EXTINCT ANIMALS
nodule. Only one foot is preserved, but that of
course tells us as to its fellow of the opposite
side. The skull of another specimen of Paria-
saurus is shown in Fig. 159. It is very remark-
able that this species seems to be so closely
similar to the one discovered far away in South
Africa in beds of the same age.
Fic. 160.—Skeleton of a huge carnivorous beast of prey-—the
reptile named Inostransevia, discovered and _ photo-
graphed by Professor Amalitzky of Warsaw. The skull
alone is two feet in length.
These Pariasaurs were about as big as well
grown cattle, but not so high on the legs.
In Fig. 160 we have the skeleton of another
creature revealed by these nodules. It is an
enormous and truly terrible carnivor, with a
220
INOSTRANSEVIA, THE CARNIVOR
skull two feet long and enormous tiger-like teeth.
This creature is named Inostransevia by Pro-
fessor Amalitzky, and is larger than any of the
carnivorous reptiles from South Africa. Speci-
mens of its skull are shown in the Professor’s
photographs reproduced in Figs. 161 and 162.
Fic. 161.—Skull of the gigantic Theromorph Carnivorous
Reptile, Inostransevia discovered by Professor Amalitzky
in Northern Russia. It is allied to Lycosaurus found in
Cape Colony in beds of the same age.
No doubt the vegetarian herds of Pariasaurus,
whose small peg-like teeth indicate clearly
enough their inoffensive habits, were preyed
upon by the terrible Inostransevia, as were
their brethren in South Africa devoured by the
Cynognathus, the Lycosaurus, the Cynodraco
221
EXTINCT ANIMALS
and other carnivorous reptiles of that remote
Triassic age. So we see the co-existence of blood-
sucker and victim—of the destructive oppressor
and the helpless oppressed—forced on our
attention in these two localities, Russia and
Fie. 162.—Photograph of another skull of Inostransevia.
South Africa, when we study the immensely
remote past of the Triassic age.
We leave now these great extinct land-dwell-
ing reptiles and take a glance at representatives
of two extinct orders of huge aquatic creatures
which must also be classified as reptiles. These
are the Plesiosauria and the Ichthyosauria.
Though some of them must have measured
thirty feet from snout to tail, they do not equal
222
PLESIOSAURS
‘umnosnyy AdoqstpT [BIngeVN oYyy ut 0}7e9s ojoTdwWod AjTeoU B UL GUO
Aq ouoq dn yos puv ‘Yysnodoqieqog aweou (ose orssBing¢ jo) Avo oy WoT
223
SARaie
Pe le
the great aquatic mammals of to-day, the
in size
whales.
In Fig. 163 is shown the photograph of the
skeleton of a large Plesiosaur, and in Fig. 164
EXTINCT ANIMALS
is given a drawing showing how the creature
appeared in life. It had a body like the hull of
a submarine with four paddles attached, the
fore- and the hind-legs. It had a long neck
like that of a swan and an elongated head pro-
Fre. 164.—Plesiosaurus as it probably appeared when alive,
swimming near the surface of the water with its back
showing and its neck and head raised above the surface.’
vided with powerful jaws armed with numerous
pointed teeth. It probably could swim under
water as well as on the surface, and when in the
latter position could snap small lizards and birds
from the land. The paddles have the definite
structure of legs, with five toes, wrist or ankle
224
ICHTHYOSAURS
and fore-arm or fore-leg and upper arm or
thigh. A great number of kinds of these
Plesiosaurs have been discovered, especially in
the Lias rocks of the South of England, slabs
containing whole skeletons being frequently
obtained. They and the similarly embedded
and flattened skeletons of different kinds of
—Photograph of a skeleton of the large-paddled
Ichthyosaurus preserved in Liassic rock.
Fie. 165.
Ichthyosauria may be seen in quantity on the
walls of the gallery of fossil reptiles in the
Natural History Museum.
In Fig. 165 the flattened skeleton of an
Ichthyosaurus is photographed. This particular
species is remarkable for the great size of its
fore-paddles.
to
to
on
~O
EXTINCT ANIMALS
In Fig. 166 a drawing of an Ichthyosaurus,
as it must have appeared in life, isgiven. The
Ichthyosaurs are much more fish-like or rather
whale-like in form than the Plesiosaurs. They
were indeed singularly like the porpoises and
Fic. 166.—Drawing to show the probable appearance of an
Ichthyosaurus swimming beneath the surface of the sea.
erampuses among living whales and stand in
the same relation to land-living reptiles that
the porpoises do to land-living mammals. Their
fish-like appearance and fins are not primitive
characters and do not indicate any closer blood-
relationship to fishes than that possessed by
226
ICHTHYOSAURS
other reptiles. They are the offspring of four-
legged terrestrial reptiles which have become
specially modified and adapted to submarine
life. Like many whales they had a median
fin on the back devoid of bony support. The
bones of their legs have become greatly changed,
much more so than those of the Plesiosaurs
and form often more than five rows of nearly
circular or polygonal plates fitted together as
a flexible paddle. The tail is fish-like, but has
the lower lobe bigger than the upper and the
vertebral column bends down into the lower
lobe instead of turning up into the wpper lobe
as it does in fish. The details as to the fins are
known from some wonderfully preserved speci-
mens found in the fine hardened mud known as
the lithographic slate of Solenhofen, where the
soft bodies of jelly-fish, cuttle-fishes and the
wings of flying reptiles also are preserved.
As mentioned in the first chapter, the Ichthyo-
sauria (see Fig. 2) had a ring of bony plates
supporting the eye-ball (as birds also have),
and these are often preserved in the fossil
specimens. In Fig. 168 a view of the top of
the skull of an Ichthyosaurus is given in order
to show the round hole in the middle line of
227
EXTINCT ANIMALS
the brain-case (on a level with the letter P).
This is called the “ parietal foramen,” and is
a fair-sized hole in which was lodged an eye, a
Fia. 167.—Photograph of the upper surface of the skull of an
Ichthyosaurus. Ona level with the letter P in the middle
~ of the skull is seen an oval pit, the ‘* parietal foramen ”’ in
which was lodged the “‘ third ” or “‘ pineal ’’ eye.
third eye called the pineal eye. This eye is
found in some other reptiles also, and especially
228
ICHTHYOSAURS AND COPROLITES
in some of the living lizards where its structure
has been studied with the microscope. There
is no doubt that the body filling this hole in
living lizards is an eye, although it seems to
have lost the power of sight in these recent
forms. 21e)
iut p
eppoqui
9 podlOAOOST
pue
p se
«
(umoesny, Ysa oyy Jo
iy, 949 Aq yuory) (‘Aapney toyFy) ‘]rey poptatp ATTenboun oy
Auoq wepnsue gos AToeso[a oY} OATesSqGQ ‘“sr1oquTeZIN AA
sisuayay snyopidayT st ysy ou,
‘Yst prouwy) [Issof W—
6LT
‘Ol
It is known as Dipterus, and is shown
Russia.
It differs from Ceratodus in having
182.
12g.
F
strong bony scales (whence its preservation as
in
THE OSTEOLEPIS
a fossil) and a triangular tail-fin.
The true’
‘suy ([e10qo0d a0) ;e107R] JOLIOQUB
) syoor ouo4spuRg por
SuIMBIp ouTTINO—'OsST
oy} JO oqo] URBIpoU oY} 9JON “puRTJOOg Jo (URTUOAZCT
PIO 94} Ut punox ‘stdoyoo4sQ Ysty plouewsy youTyxe oy Jo
OLA
tail-fin has disappeared altogether in the living
Dipterus has peculiar teeth just
mud-fishes.
251
EXTINCT ANIMALS
like those of Ceratodus, and its fins are similar
in character to those of the latter.
In the Devonian strata are found also the
It grows to a length
g as well as water by its gills.
3ritish Museum. )
181.—The Australian lung-fish Ceratodus.
of two feet and breathes air by its lun
(Figure lent by the Trustees of the I
~
a
IG.}
F
extraordinary fishes known as Pterichthys. They
were compared by the wonderful Scotch quarry-
man, Hugh Miller—who seventy years ago
22
252
THE DIPTERUS
discovered them and cleaned out many speci-
mens from the rocks of his native hills at Cro-
(Figure lent by the
, but has a more fully
, found in Scotland and in
It was in many respects like Ceratodus
developed tail fin and other separate median fins.
Trustees of the British Museum. )
Russia.
Fria. 182.—The extinct Devonian Fish, Dipterus
marty in Scotland—to a tortoise’s shield with a
fish thrust into it. We have now gained from
253
EXTINCT ANIMALS
Fic. 183.—Outline drawing of the extinct fish Pterichthys
from the Devonian or Old Red Sandstone strata. A
dorsal (34), ventral (35) and lateral view (36) are given.
The various bony plates are numbered, The scaly body
with dorsal fin and tail fin is shown. Note also the
lateral leg-like anterior fins. The round orbits (4) are
seen in Fig. 34 and the mouth in 35 between the plates
2and 3. (After Traquair.)
the examination of a great number of specimens
from Canada as well as Scotland a very detailed
254
THE STRANGE FISH, PTERICHTHYS
knowledge of the curious bony plates which
build up the case or “carapace” of the body
Fic. 184.—Photograph of a cardboard model of Pterichthys
made by Hugh Miller, the celebrated stone-mason and
naturalist of Cromarty, preserved in the Natural History
Museum.
of Pterichthys (Fig. 183), and also of its soft
scaly tail, and the two extraordinary paddles
255
EXTINCT ANIMALS
or limbs which represent the anterior or breast
fins of acommon fish. Hugh Miller puzzled this
out with great skill and constructed a card-
board model of the fish which we have still pre-
served in the Natural History Museum. It will,
I think, be interesting to those who have read
the writings of Hugh Miller (The Testimony of
the Rocks, My Schools and Schoolmasters, and
other books) to see a photograph of the model
of Pterichthys which he made with his own
hands (Fig. 184).
In the same rocks with Pterichthys occurs
another very curious fish, the Coccosteus. This
and Pterichthys were of small size only, about a
foot long, but in Ohio in the United States the
lower jaws and skulls of huge fishes allied to
Coccosteus have been found, which must have
been ten or twelve feet in length. The lower
jaw of one of these (called Dinichthys), together
with a restored outline of Coccosteus is shown
in Fig. 185.
Very strange and curious fishes (only a few
inches long) are found in still older strata—in
the oldest Devonian and the Upper Silurian.
One of these is called the buckler-head or
Cephalaspis (Fig. 186). Its head is of the shape
256
COCCOSTEUS AND DINICHTHYS
of a saddler’s knife and the two eyes are placed
near the centre. Another fish is known almost
solely by the shields which covered the head or
head and body, one above and the other below.
23
2
Fic. 185.—The upper figure is a restored outline of the curious
Devonian fish, Coccosteus. It is about a foot and a half
long. The lower figure is a photograph to the same scale
of the lower jaw of a huge fish allied to Coccosteus found
in the Devonian rocks of Ohio in the United States of
America. Itis called Dinichthys, and must have been from
ten to twelve feet long. The above jaw and nearly
complete skulls are in the Natural History Museum.
This is the Pteraspis (Fig. 187). The head or
head-and-body shields of these fishes and those
of Cephalaspis are found in immense numbers
in the hard gritty ‘“‘ cornstones ’’ of Worcester-
257 S
EXTINCT ANIMALS
shire and Herefordshire, also in Scotland. The
stone is quarried for road mending, and great
quantities of specimens have been found, though
no other fossils occur with these fish-heads.
It used to be imagined that this rock was the
deposit of a great fresh-water lake, but that is
not likely, since Pteraspis heads are found with
marine shells in the rocks of Galicia. The
curious thing is that although occasionally a
Fic. 186.—Photograph from the original specimen of Cephalas-
pis lyelli, preserved in the Natural History Museum, one-
third the natural size, showing the saddler’s-knife-shaped
head and the scale-bearing body.
tail or body of Cephalaspis covered with scales
and provided with fins has been found attached
to a head-shield, as in Fig. 186, yet the body
or tail of Pteraspis remains unknown. The only
specimen showing any trace of the hinder
258
THE SCALES OF PTERASPIS
region of Pteraspis is one which I obtained
when I was a boy (in 1864) at a quarry in
Herefordshire, the workmen from whom I got
it saying it was a fossilized fir-cone. As a
Fic. 187.—Drawings of the head-shield of the fossil fish
Pteraspis. A is the species Pteraspis crouchit. B is
Pteraspis rostratus. C shows a view of the under surface
of the fish’s head, which was protected by a peculiar oval
plate (called Scaphaspis, when it was supposed to repre-
sent an independent kind of fish). The probable position
of the mouth in front of the oval shield is shown.
(Original. )
little concession to my vanity, I have had this
solitary specimen, which I gave long ago to the
British Museum, photographed of the natural
size (Fig. 188). It is not much to look at, but
it is one of the most interesting specimens I
259
EXTINCT ANIMALS
have myself had the pleasure of unearthing.
The strange thing is that it is and remains
unique.
Fig.
g. 189 is a photograph of the upper and
Fie. 188.—Photograph (of the natural size) of a specimen
showing parts of the upper and lower head-shields of
Pteraspis crouchii, with ten rows of lozenge-shaped scales
attached. This is the only specimen showing the scales
of Pteraspis, and was obtained by the author at Cradley,
near West Malvern, Herefordshire, in 1864, and subse-
quently presented by him to the British Museum.
under side of a model of the Drepanaspis, a
most strange fossil fish of the same early .age,
allied to Pteraspis. It is prepared from the
260
THE DREPANASPIS
drawings of Professor Traquair, who has de-
scribed the fish. Specimens of it in a crushed
state preserved in the slate-rock of North
Germany are in the Natural History Museum.
ee
:
SS
ws PR SGN S Boo ey SS YS
Fic. 189.—Photographs of models of the Devonian Fish
Drepanaspis, in the Natural History Museum, prepared
after the drawings of Dr. Traquair. (Original.)
Fishes resembling this in shape have recently
been found in the Silurian strata of Lanark-
shire, and they, together with the curious
little fishes drawn in Figs. 190, 191, are
261
EXTINCT ANIMALS
the oldest remains of fishes which have been
discovered. These last two—Birkenia and
Lasanius (Figs. 190, 191)—are very puzzling
Fic. 190.—Outline drawing of the Silurian fish Birkenia
from Scotland, described by Dr. Traquair.
little creatures, with spines set in a row along the
belly. It is difficult to make out back from
belly or to distinguish eyes or mouth, yet they
show characteristic fish tails and a scaly cover-
Fie. 191.—Outline drawing of Lasanius, another genus of fish
similar to that drawn in Fig. 190, and from the same
locality, described by Dr. Traquair.
ing of the body. These are among the most
recent discoveries and come from the Upper
Silurian strata of Scotland. Specimens of these
are in the Natural History Museum, but the
finest series are in the Edinburgh Museum,
where Professor Traquair has made a special
study of the most ancient fish remains, the
262
VAST EXTENT OF ANCIENT STRATA
most ancient vertebrate remains, yet disinterred
from the crust of the earth.
Ancient, inconceivably ancient, as are these
Upper Silurian rocks, there are yet immense
thicknesses below them of stratified rock, con-
taining fossils in which no fish remains have
been discovered. We must not conclude that
the very curious-looking fishes of the Upper
Silurian are really the actual forefathers of all
later fish and of all vertebrate life. They just
happen to be preserved and dug up, but probably
sof{t-bodied fishes existed then and before that
time which had no bones inside and no hard
scales outside, and so have left no sign, in the
rocks, of their existence. The Upper Silurian
strata are, as you will see by looking at the ‘Table
of Strata on p. 60, just halfway down in the
thicknesses of rocks, between the present river
gravels above and the Cambrian beds with the
oldest known fossils (certain Trilobites) below.
We will revert to the Trilobites directly ; but
before leaving the extinct fishes I wish to men-
tion the great fossil sharks of the late Tertiaries
(Miocene and Pliocene). These we know by
their teeth ; enormous shark’s teeth are found
which are three times the length of the teeth
263
EXTINCT ANIMALS
of the biggest living sharks on record, as
shown in Fig. 192. These teeth are found in
beautiful preservation in Malta, in the Antwerp
a a
Fic. 192.—Photograph of the jaws of a large recent Shark
(Carcharodon rondeletii), the largest specimen of the kind
in the Natural History Museum. At a, a, right and left,
is placed a single tooth of the great extinct Miocene shark
for comparison. The space between the upper and lower
jaw is two feet. The fossil teeth are six inches in length,
and the largest in the jaw are two inches in length.
sands, in Maryland, U.S.A., and in Suffolk in
England. In Suffolk they occur in the same
wonderful bone-bed of the Red and Coralline
Crag (see Fig. 1924), from which we get the
264
Fic. 192a.—Photograph of the natural size of a tooth of the great shark,
Carcharodon megalodon, from the bone-bed of the Red Crag of Felix-
stowe, Suffolk. The specimen is in the author’s cabinet. It is three
times the length of the largest living shark’s tooth, and the fish which
bore it was probably 100 feet in length. A kind of sandstone is seen
adhering to a part of the surface of the tooth, which shows that this tooth
(like many others found in the Red Crag) had been embedded in an
earlier sandy deposit (the Diestien sands) before it was washed into
the Red Crag.
2605
EXTINCT ANIMALS
teeth of mastodon, rhinoceros and tapir. It
seems to be a correct conclusion that this huge
shark (Carcharodon megalodon) was nearly one
hundred feet in length, since its teeth were
fully three times the length of an almost identi-
cal recent shark (Carcharias rondeletii), which
measures thirty feet in length.
“Extinct animals’? include, as must be
obvious at once, a vast number of smaller
creatures besides the vertebrate Fishes, Am-
phibians, Reptiles, Birds and Mammals. Rocks
occur containing thousands, even millions, of
shells of Molluscs (whelks, bivalves, etc.)
crowded together in a space of a few feet.
Remains of minute shrimpsare equally abundant,
and whole mountains are built up of rock formed
by the coral or calcareous skeleton of minute
polyps resembling our sea-anemone. Many of
these are very peculiar forms, unlike those now
living. Others, again, are remarkable for the
tact that though found in the most ancient rocks
they yet closely resemble creatures still living
to-day.
We will now glance at a few of the more
remarkable “ fossils ’’ of these lower or simpler
kinds. (See the table of classes on p. 56.)
266
THE AMMONITES
In the Jurassic strata and in the Greensand
and Chalk wonderful coiled shells are very
Fic. 193.—Ammonites (Aegoceras capricornus) from the Lower
Lias of England.
commonly found which have been compared
by the country-folk to petrified snakes and to
Fic. 193a.—The shell of the Pearly Nautilus, cut in half so as
to show the air chambers in the coils of the shell. (Lent
by the Trustees of the British Museum.)
These are the so-
the coiled horns of the ram.
called Ammonites (Fig. 193), of which there
267
EXTINCT ANIMALS
are a great number of different kinds, some as
big as five feet in diameter. When cut across
they are seen to be divided into a number of
chambers internally. In fact, their structure is
the same as that of the beautiful shells of the
Pearly Nautilus (Fig. 1934), which to-day lives
in the Indian and Pacific oceans. The chambers
in the shell of the pearly nautilus contain gas
Fic. 194.—The divided shell of the Pearly Nautilus, with the
animal in place in the large front chamber. (Lent by the
Trustees of the British Museum.)
and act as a float, whilst the animal lives in the
last chamber (Fig. 194). There are only some
three or four species of pearly nautilus now
living, and they represent a vast variety of
extinct creatures which comprise not only the
Ammonites but the more ancient Goniatites.
Some of these extinct allies of nautilus, such as
268
ALLIES OF AMMONITES
the Orthoceras, were not coiled but quite straight:
others were loosely coiled, as is the Ancyloceras
AN
<
LQ QA
WN
\
“SS
EN
«
=
Lill, \”
Gi L, yi
(ee UNET )Y
Fic. 195.—The shell of Ancyloceras matheronianum, from the
Neocomian (Lower Cretaceous) rocks of France.
by the Trustees of the British Museum.)
(Lent
A similar shell
is found in the Lower Greensand of the Isle of Wight.
shown in Fig. 195, and others were twisted into
elongated spires (Turrilites).
The creature which lived in these shells was
similar to a cuttle-fish (as we know from ex-
269
EXTINCT ANIMALS
amination of the animal of Nautilus), and be-
longed to the class Cephalopoda of the great
group Mollusca. The Molluscs include, besides
these, the whelks, snails, mussels, clams and
oysters.
Fic. 196.—Belemnites hastatus from the Oxford Clay (Jurassic).
The left-hand figure represents a specimen cut in half and
shows the conical cavity or phragmacone (rudimentary
chambered shell). The right-hand figure is the ‘‘ thunder-
bolt ”? as usually found.
A celebrated fossil which is the internal shell
or “ pen” of a kind of cuttle-fish is that known
bythe name ‘“ Belemnite’’(Fig. 196). These fossils
are called “ thunder-bolts”’ in some parts of
England, where they are sufficiently common in
the clay and shale to attract attention. They
270
THE BELEMNITE’S CUTTLE FISH
are found only in the Jurassic and Cretaceous
formations. In fine clay specimens occur
showing the soft parts of the sort of cuttle-fish
in which they were formed (see Fig. 197). They
Fic. 197.—Restored drawing of the animal in which the
*‘ Belemnite ’’ is formed. The dense pencil-like piece
lies embedded near the hinder end. (From a drawing by
Sir Richard Owen.)
are of the same character as the “‘ cuttle-bone ”
of the living cuttle-fish and the pen of the
squid (Fig. 198), but are more solid and heavy.
The oldest fossils which are known are found
2z7T
EXTINCT ANIMALS
in the Lower Cambrian rocks (see Table of Strata,
p. 60), and are the remains of small marine
creatures, which were, however, by no means
very simple in structure. One of these is the
Lingula davis (Fig. 199), from the Lingula
Fic. 198.—Loligo media, a cuttle-fish or squid now living in
British seas. On the left is seen the long horny “ pen,”’
which, like the Belemnite, is embedded in the animal’s
back. (Lent by the Trustees of the British Museum.)
flags of Wales. Only the simple oval shells are
known, but they are almost exactly like the
shells of a marine animal which is still found
living in immense numbers on the shores of the
warmer oceans. The living owners of these shells
occur in great numbers burrowing in sand and
7 fe)
272
THE OLDEST FOSSILS OF ALL
have a very highly complex structure and red-
coloured blood. It is indeed a most remarkable
fact that the remote fossil shells of the lower
Fie. 199.—Lingula (Lingulella) davisii, of the natural size,
embedded in the slaty rock of Port Madoc, North Wales.
Cambrian strata should be identical with those of
a living animal of a high rank in the scale of
structure. Not only is that the case, but in all
Fie. 200.—One of the most ancient Trilobites known (Cono-
coryphe lyellit), from the Lower Cambrian of Nun’s Well,
Wales. From a drawing by Professor Gaudry. This
Trilobite is also called Conocephalites.
the deposits above the Cambrian we find the
shells of Lingula, so that we must conclude
that Lingula has been existing in the seas of
272 7
EXTINCT ANIMALS
this earth, with very little change in form, ever
since the Lower Cambrian times.
Another class of fossils which are equally
ancient are the Trilobites (Fig. 200). These
are well-marked forms with ringed or jointed
bodies divided very often into three longitudinal
lobes; hence the old name Trilobites. An
immense number of different kinds of Trilobites
are known and classified, but they ceased to exist
in the Permian period (see Table of Strata, p. 60).
For along time the legs of these creatures were
unknown; they have only been found within
the last ten years. Mr. Beecher, of the United
States, discovered them in one particular kind—
the Triarthrus becki (Fig. 201). Some people
consider these animals to be allied to the wood-
lice or other crustacean shrimp-like forms now
living. But it seems most probable that they
were a primitive marine group allied to the
scorpions, spiders and king-crabs (the Arachnida).
It is a fact of very great significance that the
earliest fossils yet discovered are the remains of
very highly developed animals, by no means
near the beginning of animal life. It is indeed
a reasonable supposition that the earliest forms
of animal life must have preceded the Cambrian
274
THE LEGS OF TRILOBITES
r
:
is
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AX
AIS
Aah
Ax ss
ree
rats
A
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nae
ZA
ZZ, Z
EE
Zé
S
A 4B
eet
H
Ee in|
pet,
Mig
Fic. 201.—Drawing of Triarthrus becki, a Trilobite from the
Silurian rocks (Ordovician) of New York, of which the
legs and antennz are well preserved, although no other
Trilobite has been found showing these parts. (Lent by
Macmillan & Co.)
275
EXTINCT ANIMALS
Trilobites and Lingula by as long a period as
these latter precede the animals living to-day.
Apparently the soft-bodied animals which pre-
ceded the Cambrian fossils have not left any
remains in the rocks below the Cambrian or their
remains have been destroyed by chemical and
Fic. 202.—The Desert Scorpion (Buthus australis). Drawn
from a living specimen in the author’s laboratory.
structural change in those most ancient deposits.
The Scorpion itself (Fig. 202) isa very ancient
and important animal which so far impressed
the imagination of even the earliest civilized
men, that they named one of the constellations
after it. Some hundreds of distinct species of
scorpions are known as living at the present day
276
EXTINCT SCORPIONS
in various parts of the world. In the Car-
boniferous strata we find fossil scorpions hardly
differing at all from those now alive, and even in
the Upper Silurian we find a scorpion (Fig. 203),
which would be recognized at once by a child
Fic. 203.—Drawing of the remains of a Scorpion (Paleophonus
hunter?) from the Upper Silurian of Lesmahago, Scotland.
as being a true scorpion. It, however, seems
probable that whilst modern scorpions are
terrestrial, and breathe air by means of lung-
sacs, the Silurian scorpion was aquatic. This
is indicated by its thick crab-like legs with
strong pointed end-joints (Figs. 204 and 205).
Besides the Silurian scorpion of undoubted
277
EXTINCT ANIMALS
affinity to modern scorpions, we find in the
Silurian and Devonian rocks remains of enor-
mous aquatic scorpion-like creatures, sometimes
Fic. 204.—Completed draw- Fic. 205.—Completed draw-
ing of the Scotch Silurian ing of the Silurian
Scorpion (Palewophonus Scorpion of Gothland
hunteri), seen from be- (Paleophonus nuncius),
low, so as to show the seen from above.
attachments of the legs.
four or five feet in length (Figs. 207, 208, 209).
These are known as the Eurypterids (Ptery-
gotus, Stylonurus, Eurypterus, etc.). They had
278
THE EURYPTERIDS
six legs like the scorpion, of which the anterior
carried nippers in some instances. The great
a
Saat 5
f \
Fic. 206.—View of the anterior part of a recent Scorpion from
below, so as to show the attachments of the limbs, the
genital plate (VII go), the combs (VIII p), and the lung-
mouths (IX stg to XII stg). Note also the claws at the
ends of the walking legs.
spine at the end of the body is the representa-
tive of the scorpion’s sting, whilst they agree
with scorpions in the position and character of
279
EXTINCT ANIMALS
the eyes and in the number of segments or rings
which build up the body and the head.
A very interesting animal which is still alive
(but is also found in ancient rocks) connects the
Fic. 207.—View from below of the anterior part of the great
Silurian Scorpion-like creature, Pterygotus osiliensis
(From Zittel’s Palwontology, lent by Messrs. Mac-
millan. )
scorpions with the great extinct Eurypterids
and also with the Trilobites. This is the King-
crab (Figs. 210, 211, 212), which is not a true
crab—that is to say, a member of the class
280
THE KING CRAB
Crustacea—but is a sort of marine scorpion
with shortened tail (though having a long
sting-like spine at the end of its body)—a
x Be
Fic. 208.—Photograph of a restored model of Stylonurus
lacoanus, from the Upper Devonian of Pennsylvania,
U.S.A. Original about five feet in length. By Professor
C. E. Beecher.
member of the class Arachnida. Its legs, six in
number (Fig. 212), are singularly like those of
the scorpion, and in a great number of minute
281
EXTINCT ANIMALS
details it agrees with scorpions (see Fig. 213)
Fic. 3209.—Eurypterus fischeri, a marine Scorpion-like animal
from the Silurian rocks of Rootzikul. Half the size of
nature. (Cut lent by Macmillan’s Co., New York, from
Zittel’s Paleontology.)
and differs from crabs. It is the only surviving
representative of the aquatic ancestors from
282
THE KING CRAB
which the modern air-breathing scorpions and
spiders have been developed.
From amongst all the great variety of extinct
Fic. 210.—Dorsal view of the King-Crab (Limulus polyphemus
Linnzeus), one-fourth the size of nature. (Cut lent by
Messrs. Macmillan from Parker and Haswell, T'ext-book of
Zoology.)
invertebrate animals, I select for our last illus-
trations and descriptions a few of the beautiful
stone-lilies or Pentacrini, or Encrinites as they
283
oo eee
, ee ee noon
‘\
Fic. 211.—Diagram of the dorsal surface of a King-Crab, to
show the head-shield carrying the central eyes (oc’) and
the lateral eyes (oc), and corresponding to six segments
I to VI); also the posterior shield, corresponding to
twelve segments (VII to XVIII), and the terminal post-
anal spine (PA), which is identical in position with the
scorpion’s sting (see Figs. 210 and 213).
284
THE KING CRAB
“Anus
Fic. 212.—Diagram of the ventral surface of the same King-
Crab, showing the six legs, the genital operculum (Op)
and the branchial plates (Br. app.). Sfr, sub-frontal
piece ; Cam, upper lip or camerostome ; M, mouth ;
Pmst, anterior sternal plate ; Chi, the chilaria, which are
the same parts as are seen in the pentagonal sternum of
the Scorpion (Fig. 206, met) and in the oval plate of
Pterygotus (Fig. 207, m).
iS)
je 2)
Ou
EXTINCT ANIMALS
Fic. 213.—Dorsal view of the eighteen segments and post-anal
spine or sting (PA) of a Scorpion’s body to compare
with those of Eurypterus (Fig. 209) and of the King-Crab
(Fig. 211). In each of these the head-shield corresponds
to six segments, as indicated by the legs (see Fig. 206 for
the legs of the Scorpion).
were long ago called. They have a very inter-
esting history, for they were known as fossils as
286
THE STONE LILIES
long ago as the seventeenth century, many
years before they were found in the living
state. They are a kind of star-fish, with long
delicate arms attached to a central cup or body
a
Rag ;
a Pps
5 al
Foe ee
4 ~~ ¢
> 4
ps
?
Fic. 214.—Slab containing Pentacrinus hemeri. The stalks
are sometimes eighteen feet in length. (Photograph lent
by Dr. Bather).
which is mounted on a jointed stem, which
is often of great length. Several kinds
are shown in the figures 214, 215, 216. The
fossil remains which we find are the hard in-
287
EXTINCT ANIMALS
ternal skeleton, consisting of carbonate of lime,
which was a very prominent feature in their
structure. It is of the same nature as the hard
box-like skeleton of the sea-urchins, which, with
Fig. 215.—Photograph of a block of Limestone of the Car-
boniferous period from Iowa, United States of America,
showing several kinds of Stone-lilies or Encrinites. They
are lettered as follows: A. Rhodocrinus kirbyi, W. and Sp.
B. Rhodocrinus watersianus, W. and Sp. C. Platycrinus
planus, Ow. and Sh. D. Platycrinus symmetricus, W. and
Sp. £. Dorycrinus immaturus, W. and Sp. F. Dicho-
crinus tnornatus, W. and Sp. (Photograph lent by Dr.
Bather).
the star-fishes, form the great group called by
naturalists the Echinoderma.
In the eighteenth century a specimen of a
living Encrinite or stalked star-fish was dis-
covered in the deep water off Martinique in the
West Indies, and was brought in a dried con-
288
THE STONE LILIES
dition to Europe and described as a “‘ sea-palm-
tree.” Fora long time such specimens were very
rare and difficult to obtain, but now a great
number have been dredged up in deep water in
Fic. 216.—Encrinus fossilis of Blumenbach from rock
of Jurassic age : the original ‘‘ Stone-lily.”” (Photograph
lent by Dr. Bather.)
different parts of the world. Still there are
only a dozen or so of different kinds or species
of the Encrinites still living, whereas in all the
older rocks we find their remains often in great
289 U
EXTINCT. ANIMALS
profusion. Many hundreds of extinct kinds
are known and they occur as far back as the
Cambrian rocks and are wonderfully varied and
abundant in the Silurian, Devonian and Car-
boniferous (Fig. 215). Some of the finest are
found in the Jurassic strata (Figs. 214 and 216).
A very interesting discovery in regard to the
Encrinites was made by a celebrated English
naturalist, Vaughan Thompson, in 1836, who was
an army surgeon and quartered at Cork, where he
studied the marine animals of Queenstown har-
bour. He found out many new and important
things by watching the growth from the egg by
means of the microscope of barnacles, star-
fishes and sea-moss, which he kept alive in
small glass vessels.
Vaughan Thompson first of all discovered in
the sea at Queenstown a minute Encrinite, not a
third of an inch long (Fig. 217), and to this he
gave the name Pentacrinus europeus. The large
one from the West Indies was at that time the
only other living Encrinite known, and was
called Pentacrinus asteria.
This was a sufficiently astonishing discovery,
but more was to come. Vaughan Thompson
found in the next place that the body of his
290
THE BRITISH ENCRINITE
little Pentacrinus europeus grows larger and
larger whilst the stalk shrivels and ceases to
Fia. 217.—The living British Encrinite, the minute young of
the Feather Starfish (Comatula or Antedon), greatly
magnified. (Lent by the Trustees of the British Museum.)
grow, so that the animal becomes detached and
swims away freely by the movement of its
291
EXTINCT ANIMALS
arms. It grows up to be a well-known star-
fish, the feather-star or comatula (Fig. 218).
At first this history was not believed, and the
Royal Society of London refused to publish
SS
—
Ss <
BOS
Fic. 218.—Drawing by Mr. Berjeau from an actual[specimen
of the Feather Star-fish (Comatula or Antedon rosacea),
showing the ten “pinnate ’”’ or feather-like arms rising
from the edge of the disc or central body, and the small
grasping ‘‘ cirrhi’’ by which the animal is clinging to a
stone. Of the natural size. (Original.)
Vaughan Thompson’s account of what he had
seen. But it was soon fully established. The
little Pentacrini were bred in glass jars by
many observers from the eggs of the feather-
292
YOUNG OF THE FEATHER STAR
star, and all of them were seen to proceed after
acertain time to produce freely-swimming little
star-fish. Thus it was proved, what indeed is
clear enough from the structure of its feathered
arms and other parts, that the feather-star or
comatula is unlike other star-fishes and is a
Pentacrinus (or stone-lily or Encrinite or Crinoid)
which has lost its stalk. And all the time that
the naturalists of 250 years ago were disputing as
to the real nature of the stone-lilies found in
the rocks, little stone-lilies a quarter of an inch
long were being abundantly produced every year
close to hand in the sea on the rocky shores of
England and France and in the Mediterranean.
Whilst the first recent unfossilized Pentacrinus
seen by naturalists was brought all the way
from Martinique, any number of a minute size
were to be found living on our ownshores. But
these European Pentacrini escaped observation
on account of their minute size and the sudden
dwindling and loss of the stalk. Only in its
very young stage does the common feather-star
of to-day retain the most remarkable character-
istic of its remote Cambrian ancestors, the stalk.
But it does for a brief week or so, whilst almost
invisible to the unaided eye, possess a well-
293
EXTINCT ANIMALS
grown stalk by which it is fixed just as were its
remote forefathers by their splendid waving
stems many feet in length.
In these pages I have only been able to bring
to the reader’s notice a few of the marvellous
and delightful things which we know as “ fos-
sils °*>—only a very small selection of what is
known about extinct animals. I have avoided
going into much detail and using more technical
terms and long names than is absolutely neces-
sary. It is impossible to speak of these things
without mentioning their names; and though it
is true that a fossil “called by any other
name’’ would still be full of interest, yet we
must have a definite name by which to speak
of each kind of animal and each kind of rock.
If one’s interest is aroused in these astoundingly
ancient and curious remains of extinct creatures,
it becomes after all no very difficult matter to
remember their names and to distinguish them
from each other as well as to recognize them
when we come across the names in books or
museums. To learn more than the few facts
which I have so briefly stated in these pages,
294
THE FOSSIL-HUNTER’S SPORT
the reader should visit many times the Natural
History Museum, see the actual specimens, and
by the aid of the illustrated guide-books get
to know more details about them. And if he
or she have the chance and can go and hunt
in some of the quarries or cliffs which are so
often full of fossils, an endless delight and
a health-giving pursuit is the prospect before
him or her. Fossil-hunting with hammer
and chisel and a bag to be laden with speci-
mens, is splendid exercise, and, if skilfully
conducted, an exciting form of sport. Even
within reach of a Londoner’s day there are the
brickfields of Ilford and Grays, where I used to
get remains of mammoth, rhinoceros and such
beasts ; there are the chalk and tertiary strata
of Charlton in Kent full of fossils; the Red
Crag pits of Suffolk; the oolites of Oxford ;
the sponge-gravel of Farringdon. A very little
longer journey brings the fossil-hunter to the
Isle of Wight, which used to be, and I doubt
not still is, a magnificent preserve of Eocene,
Greensand and Wealden fossils ; and not further
off in length of journey are the Malvern
hills, with Silurian and Devonian _ strata
exposed in quarries and railway cuttings,
295
EXTINCT ANIMALS
teeming with fossils. And there is always the
chance—a good sportsman’s chance—of finding
“something new” if one understands the
business and is never wearied of digging in
sand and clay, and hammering the rock, and
hunting up quarrymen and those delightful
people—rarer now than they were forty years
ago—the local naturalists. Ihope that many,
if not all of my readers, may be incited by the
accounts and pictures of extinct animals which
I have given in these pages, to become “‘ soldiers
of the hammer,” as Sir Roderick Murchison used
to call us, and collectors of fossils—and if
blessed by good fortune, discoverers of things
as yet unknown to man.
296
INDEX
A
Abbeville neighbourhood,
flint implements found
in, 87
Advice to those interested in
extinct animals, how
to obtain knowledge,
fossil-hunter’s sport,
ete., 294-295
Aegoceris capricornus, 267
Aipyornis (moa of Madagas-
car), size of egg laid by,
243
Africa :
Central Africa under the
equator :
Five-horned giraffe—
specimen shot by Sir
H. Johnston, 158
Giraffe still existing, pro-
tection required, 20
Okapi—skin and_ skulls
discovered by Sir
Harry Johnston, 161,
163
Ethiopian region—zoologi-
cal province, 63, 65
South Africa :
Giraffe extinct, 20
Lycosaurus — reptile
found in Northern
Russia allied to, 221
Pariasaurus—skull, speci-
men discovered in Rus-
sia similar to one dis-
covered in South
Africa, 220
Africa:
South Africa—contd.
Quagga, a native of,
18
Theromorph reptiles
found in rocks of Cape
Colony, 210, 211, 212
Zebra common in, 20
African elephant refer to
title Elephants
African square-mouthed rhi-
noceros, 144
Skull compared with that
of Rhinoceros antiqui-
tatis, 9, 10
Age of extinct animals—great
age of remains, 3, 218
Air-breathing vertebrates—
Nose-passages in living
and extinct crocodiles,
difference in position
of, 191
Aleutian Islands, sea-cow
found in, 20
Amalitzky, Professor, 212,
214, 216, 29; 2211
America, South:
Animal remains found in,
167
Iguana — similarity of
teeth to those of the
iguanodon, 200
Megatherium, 7, 9
Mylodon, discovery of
remains in cave in
Patagonia see Mylo-
don.
o7
INDEX
America, South:
Animals found, ete.—contd.
Phororachus — gigantic
extinct specimen,
photograph, etc., 239,
240
Size of recent animals
compared with their
‘representatives in the
past, 166
Toxodon, 8, 9
Coast level, changes in, 38,
39, 40
Fishes—mud-fishes allied
to the ganoid fish, 248
Neatta breed of cattle,
** bull-dogging ” of
skull, 104
Neo-tropical region :—zoo-
logical province, 65
American mastodon
Mastodons
Amiens neighbourhood, flint
implements found in,
' 86, 87
Ammonites—where found,
structure of — shell,
animal living in the
last chamber of the
shell, ete., 267, 268
Animals which lived inside,
similarity to cuttle-
fish, 269
Extinet allies, 268, 269
Amphibia animals :
Labyrinthodonts, creatures
allied to, 245
see
Variety found in_ the
carboniferous system,
245
Anatomy—science of com-
parative anatomy, 67
Ancestors :
Mammals, size and descrip-
tion of original “ type,”
114
Young animals, features re-
sembling ancestors,
which disappear on at-
taining full size, 106
particular animals
see their names, Horse,
Elephant, etc.)
Anchitherium—three-toed an-
cestor of the horse, 136
Ancyloceras, shell of, 269
(for
Andes—height partly ac-
quired by rising of
coast, 38
Andrews, Dri, 123) 124s tebe
126
Animal life, earliest forms of,
preceding the Cam-
brian ‘Trilobites and
Lingula—no remains
of soft-bodied animals
in the rocks, ete., 263,
275
Animal morphography, 67
Animals which are becoming
extinct :
Beaver, 15, 16
Giraffe, 20, 156
Tortoise, 28, 29
Wolf, 14
Anning, Miss, 6
Antiquity of man in Europe,
85-87
Antwerp, shark’s teeth found
in, 264
Apteryx :
Egg of the ostrich, giant
moa and apteryx, size
compared, 242, 243
298
INDEX
Apteryx—contd.
Wingless live bird found in
New Zealand, 241
Aquatic creatures refer to
titles, Reptiles, Scor-
pions, Fishes, Shells,
ete.; also names of
creatures.
Arachnida class, king crab
member of, 281
Archeopteryx, toothed bird,
236
Berlin specimen, 236, 238
Fingers, three distinct fin-
gers, 237
Form, shape, ete., with tail
like lizard and _ true
bird feathers, 238
Archangel, North Russia—
Professor Amalitzky’s
discoveries, 212-222
Argentine Republic :
Glyptodon— Armadillo-like
animal from Pleisto-
cene, 170
Megatherium, skeleton of,
found in alluvial sands,
i)
Toxodon, 8, 9
Armadillo-like animal, Glyp-
todon—enormous _ ar-
madilloes, ete., 170, 171
Armadilloes of South America:
Hairy armadillo, photo-
graph, 169
Size compared with repre-
sentatives in the past,
166, 167
Arsinéitherium :
Appearance in life, picture
showing probable ap-
pearance, 153
Arsinoitherium—contd.
Discovery in Upper Eocene
sands of Egyptian Fa-
yum, 151
Horns and teeth, 154
Name, origin of, 152
Skull, 152
Ashmole, Mr. E., 27
Atlantosaurus—example of
size to which some of
the Dinosaurian rep-
tiles attained, 197, 198,
199
Photograph of thigh-bone,
ll
Auk see Great Auk
Australia :
Fishes :
Lung-fish Ceratodus, il-
lustration, 252
Mud-fish found in rivers
of Queensland, 248
Kinds of animals—no_ ab-
original Placentals,
ete., 64
Land of the Marsupials or
pouched mammals:
bones of gigantic crea-
tures discovered, 184
(for particular animals
see their names)
Reptile Chlamydosaur from
Queensland — photo-
graph, 195
Size of recent animals com-
pared with their repre-
sentatives in the past,
166
B
Babbage, Mr., 34
Basilosaurus, 76
Bather, Dr., 287, 288, 289
299
INDEX
Bats’ wings—resemblance be-
tween wings of a Ptero-
dactyles and those of
a bat, 232, 233
Beadnell, Mr., 152
Beaver extinct in England,
still existing in Europe
and America, 15, 16
Beecher, Prof. C. E., 274, 281
Belemnite’s cuttle-fish—fos-
sils called ‘‘ thunder-
bolts”? in parts. of
England, etc., 270
Berjeau, Mr., 292
Bird-like footprints on slab of
Triassic rock from Con-
necticut, 54
Birds :
Animals, birds constituting
group of, 23, 56
Derived from reptiles, rep-
tiles coming nearest to
birds in structure, ete.,
202, 235, 236, 239
Feather-bearing wing © of
modern birds, begin-
ning of, 202
Fossil remains, where
found, etc., 236, 239
New Zealand—giant ‘birds
see New Zealand
Skull, single joint at back
of, 74
Teeth, fossil remains of
birds with full set of
teeth like those of rep-
tiles, 236, 237
Wingless birds :
Loss of wings, causes,
etc., 241, 243
Remains of, where found,
etc., 240
Wingless birds—contd.
Water-bird, Hesperornis,
etc., 244
Wings :
Fin-like organs, wings
probably derived from,
234
Reptiles — wings of the
flying reptile, Pterodac-
tyle,compared with,233
(for particular birds
see their names)
Birkenia—oldest remains of
fishes which have been
discovered, 262
Bognor Rock — photograph
of slab with shells em-
bedded, 45
Bones :
Age of remains discovered, 3
Buried remains indicating
kind of animal, food,
etc., 2-4
Recognition of—marks,ete.,
by which fragments of
bone may be referred
to their proper classes,
67, 72-76
(see also Skulls)
Boucher de Perthes, M., 87
Brains, size of:
Dinoceras and Titanothe-
rium, brains much
smaller than those of
recent big animals,
148-151, 209
Size of, in proportion to
body — tiny size of
brains of Dinosaurian
reptiles, probable effect
on their ceasing to ex-
ist, 209
300
INDEX
Brontosaurus—skeleton and
probable appearance in
life, 204, 205, 206
Brussels—discovery of com-
plete skeletons of huge
TIguanodons in coal
mine, 200
Buckle-head fish found in
oldest Devonian strata,
saddler’s knife-shaped
head, etc., 256—illus-
tration, 258
‘** Bull-dogging’”’ of skull in
elephants, pugs, etc.,
103-105, 106
Bulls :
Urus of Julius Cesar, 16, 17
Wild cattle still found in
England, ancestry of,
16, 17
Burchell’s = rhinoceros — or
square-mouthed Afri-
can rhinoceros — see
Rhinoceros
Buthus Australis: Drawing
of desert scorpion, 276
C
Cambrian Rocks, shells of
Lingula found in—fos-
sil shells identical with
those of a living animal
of a high rank in scale
of structure, 272, 273
Cape Colony, refer to Africa,
South
Carboniferous system, variety
of amphibia found in,
245, 246
Carcharodon megalodon—tooth
of the great shark, 265
Carcharodon rondeletii—jaws
of large recent shark,
264
Cariama or Screamer—gigantic
extinct South American
Phororachus, etc., 240
Carnegie, Mr. Andrew, 204
Cattle :
** Bull-dogging ” of skull in
Neatta breed, 104
Wild cattle still to be found
in England, ancestry
of Gs 17
Causes of extinction of ani-
mals :
Changes in the surface of
the earth—conditions
of life altered for the
animals, 31 and note
Development of ancestral
form in different direc-
tions, 29, 30
Man’s interference, 28
Caves :
Engravings on ivory and
bone found in, 90-92
Mylodon, remains _ dis-
covered in cave in
south-west Patagonia
see Mylodon
Cephalaspis—saddler’s knife-
shaped head and scale-
bearing body, 256—il-
lustration, 258
Ceratodus—Australian lung-
fish related to ancient
extinct fishes, 248—il-
lustration, 252
Ceteosaurus—remains found
near Oxford, 204—pro-
bable appearance in
life, 206
>
301
INDEX
Chalk—tilted strata at Sea-
ford, Sussex, 50
Changes in the earth:
Animals, effect on—change
of form or extinction,
31 and note
Difficulty of realizing
changes, inability to
think in long enough
lapses of time, 13
Eating away of edge of land
by sea waves, 42
Incessant and great changes,
12
Land added to the coast by
the sea, 43, 44
Rising and sinking of sur-
face of the land,
changes in distribution
of land and water, 31
Europe:
Elevation of the sea-
bottom, effect on
distribution of land
and water, 40, 41, 42
Middle Tertiary Period—
map showing attempt
to determine distri-
bution of land and
water, 42, 43
Fossils as a means of
tracing former connec-
tion of different land
surfaces, 66, 67
Places where there is evi-
dence of change in
level, 38, 39
Roman remains at Puz-
zuoli,with photographs
showing the temple as
it was and is now, 32—
38
Changes in the earth:
Rising and sinking of sur-
face, ete.—contd.
Washing of material from
surface of land by
rains and rivers, 42,
43, 44
Charlton, J
Ichthyosaurus—contd.
Fish-like or whale-like ap-
pearance, 226, 227
Head of, from Liassie rocks
of Lyme Regis, 6
Large-paddled ichthyosau-
rus preserved in Lias-
sic rock, 225
Offspring of four-legged ter-
restrial reptiles, 227
Size of, 222
Skeletons, 225, 229
Young, bringing forth alive,
231
Iguana—upper jaw showing
serrated edges of teeth
similar to those of the
iguanodon, 200
Iguanodon :
Bones and teeth, discover-
ies made by Dr. Gide-
on Mantell, 199, 200
Footprint, supposed, in Isle
of Wight sandstone,
54
Foot like that of a bird—
stock from which birds
have been derived, 202
Size, shape, ete.—probable
appearance in living
condition, 198, 199
Skeletons :
Complete skeletons dis-
covered near Brussels,
201
Drawing of, 197
Skull—specimen discovered
near Brussels, 201—
photograph, 202
Teeth showing — serrated
margin, 199
3T0
Ilford
INDEX
Iguanodon—contd.
Similarity of teeth to
those of the little South
American lizard igu-
ana, 200
brickfield, remains of
mammoth, ete., found
in, 92, 295
Illustrations :
American mastodon, 101
Ammonites, 267
Ancyloceras, shell of, 269
Apteryx, ostrich and giant
moa with eggs, 242
Archeopteryx, 238
Armadillo, 169
Arsinéitherium, 152, 153
Atlantosauros,thigh-bone, 11
Beavers, 15
Belemnite’ scuttle-fish speci-
mens, 270, 271
Birkinia, Silurian fish, 262
Bognor rock, 45
Bones embedded in rock,
from Pikermi near
Athens, 2
Brain-cavity of Dinoceras,
small size compared
with that of the horse,
ete., 150
Brontosaurus, skeleton, 205
Cephalaspis, 258
Ceteosaurus, Diplodochus
and Brontosaurus, 206
Chilian coast, change in
level ; alleged Spanish
inscriptions on rocks,
38, 39, 40
Chlamydosaur from Queens-
land, 195
Clouded tiger, teeth of, 81
Coccosteus : curious Devon-
ian fish, 257
Tllustrations—contd.
Coypu rat, teeth of, 82
Crocodile—fossil jaw, 82
Deer—skeleton of male of
giant Irish deer, 94
Dinoceras, 148, 149
Dinosaur stegosaurus, 208
Dinosaur, Triceratops —
three-horned dinosaur,
207
Dinotherium, skull of, 118
Diprotodon — skull, skele-
ton, ete., 185-188
Dodo, 26, 27
Drawings by primitive men
91, 92
Drepanaspis, 261
Dromatherium, lower jaws
of, ete., 189
Divinariver, Northern Rus-
sia — Professor Ama-
litzky’s discoveries,213
Ear of man, show spiral
construction of inter-
nal ear, 74-76
Elephant, mammoth, and
mastodon— transverse
ridges on molar teeth,
110-113, 115
Elephants :
Head of African elephant,
with uplifted trunk
122
Indian and African ele-
phants, 97, 98
Skulls, 104, 107, 108, 109
Skulls and jaws of series
of elephant ancestors,
126, 128
Tusks, specimens in
Natural History Mu-
seum, 99
311
INDEX
Illustrations—conitd.
Fayum Desert, remains of
silicified trees, 124
Flint implements, 86
Footprints of animals in
ancient rocks, 54, 55
Ganoid fish fossil, 250
Hard bony scales of, 247
Giraffe, 21
Five-horned giraffe, 156,
157
Teeth of lower jaw and
allied animals, 159
Glyplodon—skeleton, 170
Great auk and egg, 23,
25
Horse :
Hyracotherium, Eocene
ancestor, 139, 140
Model of thoroughbred
English horse, 133
Phenacodus, skeleton of,
141
Toes and foot of modern
horse and of four-toed
and three-toed ances-
tors) aso: 137.138
Horse and man, skeletons
compared, 70—72
Human teeth, 80
Ichthyornis—toothed bird,
237
Ichthyosaurus, 6, 225, 226,
228, 229
Iguanodon, 197, 198, 199,
200, 202
Inostransevia, skeleton and
skull, 220, 221, 222
Jaw of mammal _ from
Stonesfield slate, 84
Jelly fish preserved in litho-
graphic limestone, 48
312
Illustrations—contd.
King-crab, 281-286
Lasanius—Silurian fish, 262
Lingula, shell of, 272, 273
Lizard :
Mexican horned lizard,
194
New Zealand lizard, Tua-
tara, 193
Loligo media — cuttle-fish
living in British seas,
22,
Lyme Regis, strata of cliff
at, 49, 51
Mammoth :
Imaginary picture of, 96
Skeleton found frozen in
Siberia, 93
Mastodons :
Meritheriwm, 129, 130
Tetrabelodon angustidens,
long-jawed Miocene
mastodon, 116, 117,
119, 121
Megalosaurus — skeleton, -
203
Megatherium—skeleton, 7
Moa—New Zealand moa,
68, 69
Mylodon :
Remains of, discovered
in cave,
Piece of skin of the
mylodon, ete., 175, 176
Various specimens found
with the remains” of
the mylodon, 177-182
View from the mouth of
the cave on the fiord of
the Ultima Speranza
in Southern Patagonia,
174
INDEX
Illustrations—contd.
Skeleton, 173
Nodules containing skele-
tons of reptiles—Pro-
fessor Amalitzky’s dis-
coveries, 213-216
Occipital condyles in skulls
of mammals and rep-
tiles, 73, 74
Okapi, specimen of, dis-
covered by Sir Harry
Johnston, ete., 163,
164, 165
Osteolepis—extinct ganoid
fish, 251
Pariasaurus—skeleton, 211,
218—skull, 219
Pearly nautilus, 267, 268
Phororachus, 240
Pig’s teeth, 77, 79
Plesiosaurus, 223, 224
Polypterus of the Nile,
249
Pteraspis, 259, 260
Pterichthys, 254, 255
Pterodactyles, 230, 231, 235
Puzzuoli, Roman remains
at, 32, 33, 35, 36, 37
Quagga, 18
Rhinoceros :
Skeleton of Rhinoceros
antiquitatis, 143
Skulls of African square-
mouthed — rhinoceros
and of Rhinoceros anti-
quitatis (found in Lon-
don), 10
Stuffed specimen — of
square-mouthed rhino-
ceros, 144
Ripple marks preserved in
Triassic strata, 53
Tllustrations—contd.
Samotherium: skull, 161
Scorpions and scorpion-like
creatures, 276-283, 286
Sea-cow discovered by
Steller, 22
Shark—jaw and tooth of
the great shark, 264,
265
Sivatherium, 160
Skeleton of animal found
embedded in caleare-
ous rock at Montmar-
tre, Paris, 46
Skulls of monkey, primitive
man, and modern man,
88, 89
Sloth, 168, 171
Stone-lilies, 287, 288, 289,
291
Tilted strata of chalk at
Seaford, Sussex, 50
Titanotherium, 145, 146, 147
Tortoise of Court House,
Mauritius, 29
Toxodon, 8
Trilobites from Silurian
rocks of New York, 275
Urus or bull of Julius
Cesar, 17
Wings—birds, bats, and
pterodactyles com-
pared, 233
Wings of dragon-fly and
pterodactyle preserved
in limestone, 47
Wolf, 14
Zebra, 19
India — remains of Thero-
morphs found in, 210
elephant refer to
title Elephants
Indian
313
INDEX
Indian or or-ental
region—
zoological province, 63,
65
Information concerning ex-
tinct animals, sources
of :
Author’s advice to those
seeking information,
294
Bones and teeth found in
the earth, 2—4
Tradition, 1
Inostransevia — skeleton and
skull of huge specimen
discovered by Profes-
sor Amalitzky, 220,221
Insects :
Flying insects, 232, 234
Fossilized wings, preserva-
tion in stratified rock,
46, 47
Trish deer—skeleton of male
of giant Irish deer, 94,
95
Isle of Wight :
Footprint of animal in the
sandstone, 54
Fossils—where fossils are
to be found, 295
J
skull of monkey-man
discovered in, 88
Jaws refer to Teeth
Jelly fish preserved in litho-
graphic limestone, 48
Johnston, Sir Harry, 156, 158,
161, 163
Julius Cesar, great
urus of, 16, 17
Java
bull or
Ik
Kangaroos—giant kangaroos:
Bones of gigantic creatures
found in Australia, 184
Living specimens in Aus-
tralia, size of, com-
pared with gigantic ex-
tinct creatures of the
same kind, 166
Kansas’ refer to United
States of America
King-crab
Animal which connects the
scorpions with extinct
Eurypterids and Tri-
lobites, 280
Diagrams of, 284, 285
Dorsal view of—illustra-
tion, 283
Member of class Arachnida
—scorpion-like crea-
ture, 281
Only surviving representa-
tive of aquatic ances-
tors from which mo-
dern air - breathing
scorpions and spiders
have been developed,
282
Segments and post - anal
spine or sting of scor-
pion to compare with
the king-crab, 286
Kipling, Mr. Rudyard, 120,
122
Kiwi—wingless bird found in
New Zealand, 241
Knowledge, imparting—logi-
cal method v. exciting
the desire to know,
a7
314
{NDEX
L
Labyrinthodonts :
Allied to creatures which
form the class Amphi-
bia, and essentially
aquatic animals, 245
Size and shape of large alli-
gators, 246
Lanarkshire—fishes found in
Silurian strata, 261
Land, rising and sinking see
title, Changes in the
earth
Land-dwelling reptiles refer
to Reptiles, and names
of reptiles
Lasanius—oldest remains of
fishes which have been
discovered, 262
Leeds, Mr. A. N., 223
Lepidosiren — mud-fish — of
South America, 248
Lepidosteus—specimen of ga-
noid fish in North
American lakes, 248
Lepidotus helvenis—fossil ga-
noid fish—illustration,
250
Limestone — fossilized wings
of insects, etc., pre-
served in, 46, 47
Limestone in solution, amount
carried past Kingston
by the Thames every
year, 44
Limulus Polyphemus—dorsal
view of the king-crab,
283
Lingula, shells of, found in
the Cambrian rocks,
272
Lingula—contd.
Complex structure of living
owners of these shells,
Ces, VAP Palio
Lizard :
Chlamydosaur from Queens-
land—photograph, 195
Flying lizards, 234
Great girdled lizard—photo-
graph, 196
Jawbones found in Oolitic
strata supposed at first
to be those of izards,
but afterwards found
to belong to small
mammals, 188
Mexican horned lizard or
horned toad, 194
New Zealand lizard Tua-
tara—photograph, 193
Local naturalists rarer now
than they were forty
years ago, 296
Loligo media—cuttle-fish liv-
ing in British seas, 272
London—skull of rhinoceros
found in Whitefriars,
9, 10
Lycosaurus — remains dis-
covered in Cape Co-
lony — Inostransevia
allied to, 221
Lyme Regis :
Ichthyosaurus head from
Liassic rocks of, 6
Strata of cliff at, 48, 49, 51
M
Madagascar, wingless birds
found in, 240
Malta, shark’s teeth found in,
264
315
INDEX
Malvern Hills—where fossils
are to be found, 295
Mammals :
Ancestry—size an descrip-
tion of original “‘ type,”
114
Brains of ancient big mam-
mals much smaller
than those of recent
big animals, 148-151
Classification of — tabular
list of chief orders,
57
Ear, spiral construction of
internal ear, 74-76
Oldest remains—fossil jaw
found at Stonesfield,
one of most ancient
evidences of existence,
82, 84, 186, 188
Skulls provided with pair
of condyles, 73
Teeth refer to title, Teeth
Mammoth :
Appearance in life, imagi-
nary picture of, 96
Description of, 91
Drawings by prehistoric
men, 90, 91
Hairy skin, 94
Remains of, found all over
the Holarctic region,
91, 92, 93
Skeleton of mammoth
found frozen in Siberia,
93
Teeth — transverse ridges
110, 111
Man :
Prehistoric man see that
title
Man—contd.
Skull, size of :
Giant Australian Dipro-
todon, size of skull
compared with that of
human skull, 185
Modern man compared
with that of a monkey
and of a primitive man,
88-90
Man and_ horse — skeletons
compared, correspond-
ence in details of struc-
ture, 70
Mantell, Dr. Gideon, 200
Maps :
Europe — elevation of the
sea-bottom, effect on
distribution of land
and water, 40, 41, 42
Zoo-geographical map, 63—
66
Marine creatures’ refer to
titles, Reptiles, Fishes,
Shells, also names of
creatures
Marsh, Prof., 147, 206
Marsupials :
Australia distinguished by,
64
Giant Australian marsupial,
Diprotodon,184—skull
and skeleton, 185, 186
Jawbones embedded and
preserved in ancient
rocks — specimen dis-
covered in Stonesfield
slate near Oxford, 186—
188
Mastodon-like creature found
in the Miocene—Dino-
therium, 117, 118
316
INDEX
Mastodons :
American mastodon,
101, 102, 106, 113
Skull more projecting
than that of an ele-
phant, 105
Survival later in America
than in Europe, 102
Teeth less peculiar than
those of true elephants
— fewer transverse
ridges, 107, 112-113, 114
100,
Meritherium, Eocene
(Egypt) :
Description of, head,
teeth, etc., 128-132
Elephant ancestry, con-
nection with, 132
More primitive mastodon
than any yet known,
125
Picture representing pro-
bable appearance in
life, 130
Palzeeomastodon, Eocene
(Egypt), 126, 128
Description of—link in
the series leading back
from bulldog-faced ele-
phants to ordinary
mammals, 127
Size, 128
Skulls and jaws of series
of elephant ancestors
compared, 126, 127,
128
Tetrabelodon angustidens,
long-jawed Miocene
mastodon :
Drawing representing
probable appearance in
life, 119
Mastodons—contd.
Tetrabeloden angustidens—
contd.
Skeleton from Miocene
strata of south of
France, 115, 116
Trunk not a ‘ trunk,”’
but an elongated upper
lip, 118
Tusks and _ horizontal
Tnebinlie,” URE Gi, Elen,
120, 121
Mauritius :
Dodo found in, 26
Giant tortoise living in
Court House Garden,
28, 29
Megalosaurus :
Skeleton, drawing of, 203
Teeth, tiger-like teeth, 204
Megatherium :
Comparison with little liv-
ing sloths of to-day,
ete., 172
Photograph of skeleton, 7
Similarity to sloth, 9
Meritherium see Mastodons
Mesohippus — three-toed an-
cestor of the
136
Teeth, 141
Meyer, Herman von, 76
Middle Tertiary Period, see
Oligocene Period
Migration of Animals :
Results of—Tapir found
alive in Sumatra and
also in Central Amer-
ica, 66
Zoo-geographical map, 63—
66
Miller, Hugh, 252-256
horse,
317
INDEX
Moa:
Eggs of apteryx, ostrich
and the giant moa—
size compared, 242,
243
New Zealand giant bird
see New Zealand
Size of the Madagascar moa,
242
Models of horses and cattle :
Set of, in the Natural His-
tory Museum, 133
Value of models as a record
of best breeds, 134
Monkey, monkey-man, and
modern man-skulls
compared, 88—90
Monstrous size—giants in for-
mer days, theory of, 2,
165, 166
Montmartre, Paris—skeleton
of animal found in
stratified rock, 46
Moreno, Dr., 175
Mud-fishes allied to the ganoid
fishes —mud-fishes of
Australia and South
America, 248
Mule — okapi as hybrid or
‘““mule”’ between ze-
bra and giraffe theory,
164, 165
Murchison, Sir R., 296
Mylodon :
Date of extinction — sup-
posed date, 174, 182,
183
Remains discovered in cave
of the Ultima Speranza
in South-west Patago-
nia—fresh remains, ete.
Mylodon—contd.
Alive in the cave—indi-
cations that the mylo-
dons lived in the cave
and were fed by the
Indians, 178
Bones, claws, ete., of the
mylodon, 178
Inhabitants of the cave:
probable Indian inha-
bitants, 176
Pellets of dung of the
mylodon, 178—photo-
graphs, 177, 181
Position of the cavern :
explorers’ difficulties,
181
Skin covered with green-
ish-brown hair, 174;
photograph, 175, 176
Skin, hair, etc., preserva-
tion of, in original
state—probable expla-
nation, 182
Various remains of the
mylodons and of man,
177-180
Skeletons—comparison be-
tween the skeletons of
the mylodon and two-
toed sloth, 172, 173
N
Neanderthal, skulls of primi-
tive men found in sand
of, 90
Neo-tropical region—zoologi-
cal province, 63, 65
318
INDEX
New Zealand :
Animals—New Zealand dis-
tinguished from the
rest of the world, 64
Birds—giant birds :
Moa — ostrich-like bird,
240, 241
Skeleton constructed by
Sir R. Owen, 69, 70
Thigh bone, from which
existence of bird was
inferred, 68, 70
Wingless birds found in
New Zealand, 240, 241
Lizard Tua-tara — photo-
graph, 193
Nile — Polypterus, specimen
of ganoid fish still liv-
ing in the Nile and
other African rivers,
248—photograph, 249
Nodules containing skeletons
of great reptiles—Pro-
fessor Amalitzky’s dis-
coveries, 213-216
Nordenskjold, Dr., 174
Norway — changes in coast
level, 38
O
Object of the book—bringing
to notice a few of the
marvellous and de-
lightful things which
are known as “ Fos-
sils,”’? 294
Occipital condyles — mam-
mals distinguished by,
from birds and rep-
tiles, 73
Okapi—animal allied to the
giraffe :
Equus Johnstoni — name
given to the okapi by
Dr. Sclater, 164
Hoofs, paired hoofs, 161,
164
Horns, paired horns, 164
Skin and skulls discovered
by Sir Harry John-
ston, 161, 163
Skull of a male okapi—
photograph, 164
Species — smaller
larger species, 163
Specimen of the okapi—
photograph, 163
Striped skin on legs and
haunches, 162
Girdles and bands for
ornament made out of
skin by natives, 163
‘* Bandoliers ’? cut from
the striped skin ; pho-
tograph, 165
Teeth—crown of tooth in
lower jaw divided by
slit into two halves,
described as bi-foliate,
159, 162
Unknown species of animal—
hybrid or mule be-
tween a zebra and
giraffe theory, 164
Oligocene or Middle Tertiary
Period — distribution
of land and water in
Europe, map showing
attempt to determine,
42, 43
Oriental region — zoological
province, 63, 65
and
319
INDEX
Orthoceras—extinct allies of
pearly nautilus, 268
Osteolepis — extinct ganoid
fish :
Beautifully preserved speci-
men found in the De-
vonian strata, 248
Drawing, 251
Ostrich-like bird—New Zea-
land moa see New
Zealand
Owen, Sir R., 68, 69, 70, 184,
186, 271
Oxen :
Skull of ox, photograph
showing occipital con-
dyles, 73
Urus of Julius Cesar, 16,
ly
Wild cattle still to be found
in England, ancestry
om 16; 17
P
Paleomastodon, Eocene
(Egypt), 126, 127, 128
Paleophonus hunteri—draw-
ing of the remains of a
scorpion from Upper
Silurian of Lesmahago,
277, 278
Paleophonus nuncius—Silu-
rian scorpion of Goth-
land, 278
Paleotherium — __ skeleton
found in caleareous
rock at Montmartre,
Paris—photograph, 46
Paleozoic strata—no reptile,
bird, or mammal found
in, 245
Pariasaurus :
Nodules containing skele-
tons— Professor Ama-
litzky’s discoveries,
216-220
Remoteness of the time
when these reptiles
lived, 218
Size of the reptile, 220
Skeleton set up by Pro-
fessor Seeley, 211
Skeleton and skull removed
from an archangel nod-
ule, 218, 219
Skull of Pariasaurus dis-
covered in Russia:
species similar to one
discovered in South
Africa, 220
Pearly nautilus—structure of
shell, species now liv-
ing, etc., 267, 268
Penguins — use of wings as
swimming organs, 244
Pentacrini see Stone-lilies
Permian strata on banks of
the Dwina, North
Russia — Professor
Amalitzky’s dis-
coveries, 212—222
Peterborough—skeleton of a
Plesiosaur removed by
Mr. A. N. Leeds—pho-
tograph, 223
Phenacodus — five-toed an-
cestor of the horse, 139,
141
Phororachus of South Amer-
ica—photograph, ete.,
239, 240
320
INDEX
Phrynosoma orbiculare (Mexi-
ean horned lizard or
horned toad)—photo-
graph, 194
Pithecanthropus or monkey-
man—skull compared
with skulls of chimpan-
zee and modern man,
88—90
Placentalium terra—zoologi-
eal province, 63, 64
Plesiosaurs :
Extinct order of reptiles,
192
Form and shape—probable
appearance in living
condition, 224
Number of kinds discovered
in Lias rocks of the
south of England, 225
Size of, 222
Skeleton of, 223
Plymouth—changes in coast
level, 38
Polypterus—specimen of gan-
oid fish still living in
the Nile and other
African rivers, 248—
photograph, 249
Prehistoric man :
Antiquity of remains in
Europe, 85-87
Drawing, skill in — photo-
graphs of engravings
upon bone and ivory,
ete., 90-92
Skull compared with that
of a monkey and of a
modern man, 87—90
Pritchard, Mr. Hesketh, 181
Protopterus — mud-fish — of
Africa, 248
Pteraspis —fish known by its
shields, which covered
head and body, where
found, ete., 257, 258
Hinder unknown,
258
Specimens obtained by the
author in Hereford-
shire — unique speci-
mens, etc., 259, 260
region
Pterichthys — _ discoveries
made by Hugh Miller
from rocks of his na-
tive hills at Cromarty,
252
Cardboard model made by
Hugh Miller, 255
Curious bony plates, soft
scaly tail, etc., 255
Outline drawing of the fish,
254
Pterodactyles—flying reptiles
Different kinds of Jurassic
pterodactyles — prob-
able appearance in life,
etc., 234, 235
Extinct order of reptiles,
192
Form, size, etc., as it ap-
peared in flight, 231
Skeleton, 230
Wings :
Formation of — bat-like
appearance, etc., 232,
233
Preserved in sandy lime-
stone of Oolitic Age,
46, 47
Pterygotus — _ scorpion-like
creature, 278, 280
Sant Y
INDEX
Puzzuoli or Puteoli, condition
of Roman remains at:
proof of changes that
take place in the level
of the land, 32-38
Q
Quagga :
Extinct, owing to country
ranged over being oc-
cupied by white men,
20
Photograph of specimen in
Zoological Gardens in
1875, 18
South Africa, inhabitant of,
18
Queensland refer to Aus-
tralia
Queenstown — Encrinite dis-
covered by Vaughan
Thompson, 290
R
Raindrops, marks preserved
on rocks which were
once soft sand, 53
Rains and rivers, quantity of
material carried off
surface of land by, 43
Raised beaches, 38, 43, 44
Rats—teeth of Coypu rat, 81,
82
Reindeer—drawings by pre-
historic men, found in
caves, 90, 91, 92
Reptiles :
Atlantosaurus, thigh-bone
of, from Jurassic rocks
of UssAe Ils
ise)
Reptiles—contd.
Birds derived from — rep-
tiles coming nearest to
birds in structure, ete.,
235, 236, 239
Classification of — tabular
list of chief orders,
58
Crocodile see that title
Difference between living
and extinct reptiles—
separate orders made
for living _ reptiles,
191
Extinct orders—disappear-
ance of remains from
rocks, ete., 192
Flying reptiles, 231
Groups, 190
Land-dwelling — reptiles—
great extinct reptiles,
190-222
Marine reptiles—represen-
tativés of extinct or-
ders of huge aquatic
creatures, 222
Pterodactyle skeleton pre-
served in lithographic
limestone, 47
Size of extinct reptiles—
enormous sizes, 167,
191
Snake, fossil remains of,
found in the Fayum
125
Teeth :
Description of, 81
Peg-like teeth with single
fangs, 81, 82, 83
(refer also to names of
reptiles)
INDEX
Rhinoceros :
Horns :
Composition of, etc., 144
Creatures allied to the
rhinoceros, horns of,
144, 146
Skulls compared — African
square-mouthed rhino-
ceros and Rhinoceros
antiquitatis, 9, 10
Square-mouthed = African
rhinoceros (white rhi-
noceros), 144
Rhinoceros antiquitatis—
woolly rhinoceros of
late Pleistocene period
in Europe and Siberia :
Hairy coat, 143
Skeleton of, 143
Ripple marks preserved in
Triassic strata, 53
Rising and sinking of surface
of the land see title,
Changes in the Earth
Rivers and rains—amount of
material washed from
surface of land and
carried away by, 43
Roman remains at Puzzuoli,
condition of—proof of
changes that take place
in the level of the land,
32-38
Rootzikul—marine_ scorpion-
like animal from Silu-
rian rocks, 282
Russia—Theromorph reptiles,
discovery and working
out of skeletons near
Archangelin North Rus-
sia by Professor Ama-
litzki,’ 210, 212-222
32
S
Samos, Island of — Samo-
therium, giraffe - like
animal found in Mio-
cene beds, 159, 160
Samotherium — giraffe - like
animal :
Skull—photograph, 161
Teeth—crown of tooth in
lower jaw divided by
slit into two halves,
described as bi-foliate,
159
Saxony—Triassic rock from,
showing footprints of
Cheirotherium, 55
Scales of fishes see Fishes
Schweinfurth, traveller, 123
Sclater, Dr., 164
Scorpions :
Ancient and important ani-
mal—number of dis-
tinct species: extinct
species, etc., 276, 277
Animal which connects
scorpions with extinct
Eurypterids and Tri-
lobites—king-crab, 280
Desert scorpion—drawing,
276
Silurian scorpions and enor-
mous aquatic scorpion-
like creatures, 277—282
IXing-crab see that title
Scotland—Fishes :
Fishes with head and body
shields found in ** corn-
stones,’ 258
Miller’s, Hugh, investiga-
tions relating to the
Pterichthys, 252-256
3
INDEX
Scotland—Fishes—contd.
Recent discoveries from the
Upper Silurian strata,
262
Sea Cow:
Bony plates
teeth, 23 -
Description of, 22, 23
Discovered by Steller, 21
Fossils found in the Fayum,
125
Picture of, 22
Sirenian group, sea-cow be-
longing to, 23
Skull, photograph of, 22
Seely, Professor, 211
Seychelles—tortoise becoming
extinct in, 28
Sharks :
Most ancient kind of fish
known, 247
Probable size of the great
shark—100 feet long,
266
Teeth — enormous teeth,
where found, ete., 263,
264, 265
Shells and small marine ani-
mals, ete. :
Animals which lived inside
these shells, similarity
to the cuttle-fish, 269
Bognor rock with shells em-
instead of
bedded, photograph,
45
Coiled shells—ammonites,
pearly nautilus, ete.,
267
Cuttle-fish —— Belemnite’s
cuttle-fish, ete., 270
Extinct allies of nautilus,
268, 269
324
Shells, ete.—contd.
Lingula, shells of, found in
the Cambrian rocks,
PA, PAG:
Mollusca group, classes in-
cluded in, 270
Oldest fossils which are
known — remains. of
small marine creatures,
Par ils YATIP4
Trilobites see that title.
Vast number of smaller
creatures included in
‘ Extinct Animals ’’—
mountains built up of
rock formed by the
coral, etc., 266
Siberia—mammoth and rhi-
noceros remains found
in, 93, 94
Silver-scaled fish — varieties
and comparatively re-
cent origin, etc., 246
Sivatherium—extinct animal
from India :
Skull—photograph, 160
Teeth of lower jaw—crown
divided by slit into two
halves, described as bi-
foliate, 159
Size :
. Bones — giants in former
days, theory of, 2
Mammals, remote ancestor
not much bigger than
a dog, 114
Recent animals, size of,
compared with their
representatives in the
past— illus ons as to
extinct monsters, 165,
166
INDEX
Size—contd.
(for particular animals
see their names)
Skulls :
** Bull-dogging”’ of skulls
in elephants, pugs, etc.,
103-105, 106
Primitive man, skull com-
pared with that of a
monkey and of a mo-
dern man, 87—90
particular animals
see their names)
Sloths :
Giant ground sloth, Mega-
therium :
Photograph of skeleton,
7
Probable appearance in
life—illustration, 171
Living sloths of South
America :
Size compared with re-
presentatives in the
past, 166, 167
Mylodon and _ two-toed
sloth, comparison be-
tween: skeletons, etc.,
172, 173
Two-toed specimens—pho-
tograph, 168
Smaller creatures—vast num-
ber included in
“Extinct Animals ”’—
mountains built up of
rock formed by the
coral, etc., 266
Snake :
Fossil remains of, found in
the Fayum, 125
Size of extinct snakes:
large size, 191
(for
Soft-bodied animals— no re-
mains in rocks to show
earliest form of animal
life preceding the
Cambrian Trilobites
and Lingula, 263, 275
South Africa see Africa
South America see America
Sphenodon punctatus (New
Zealand lizard, Tua-
tara)—photograph,193
Spiders—surviving represen-
tative of aquatic an-
cestors from which
modern air-breathing
scorpions and spiders
have been developed,
282, 283
Spiral fold on walls of intes-
tine — skeleton with
excrement of the
ichthyosaurus, 229
Spy, Belgium—skulls of pri-
mitive men found in
caverns, 89
Squirrels—flying squirrels, 234
Star fish refer to Stone-lilies
Stegosaurus — probable ap-
pearance in life of the
Jurassic Dinosaur Ste-
gosaurus, 208
Steller, discoverer
cow, 21, 22
Stirling, Dr., 185
Stone-lilies, or pentacrini, or
encrinites :
Block of limestone showing
several kinds of stone-
liles from Iowa, 288
British encrinite—Vaughan
Thompson’s discovery,
ete., 290
of sea-
INDEX
Stone-lilies, ete.—contd.
Young of the feather-
star — Vaughan
Thompson’s account
established, ete., 291,
292
Common feather-star of to-
day—resemblance to
its remote Cambrian
ancestors, 293
Encrinus Fossilis of Blu-
menbach from rock of
Jurassic age, 289
Fossil remains, 287
Known as fossils before
they were found in
the living state, 286,
293
Number of, and various
species, 289, 290, 293
Stalks, length of—photo-
graph, etc., 287
Stonesfield, jaw of mammal
found at, 82, 84, 188
Stratification of rocks :
Hard and soft rock, alter-
nate layers :
Pictures showing strata
of cliff at Lyme Regis,
48,.49, 51
Tilting of strata, 48, 49, 50,
51
Diagram showing effect
of bending or undula-
tion of earth’s crust,
DOD
Ripple marks preserved
in Triassic strata, 53
Seaford, chalk at, 50
Time elapsed during form-
ation of strata, esti-
mate of, 61, 62
Stratified rocks :
Footprints on slabs of Tri-
assic rock, 53-55
Formation of stratified de-
posits from material
brought down from the
land by rivers, 44
Fossilized remains found in:
Jelly fish preserved in
lithographic limestone,
photograph, 48
Shells embedded in slab
of Bognor rock, 45
Skeleton of animal found
in calcareous rock at
Montmartre, Paris, 46
Succession from simpler
to more complex forms
of lfe—diagram, etc.,
showing position in
which animal remains
have been found, 60—62
Wings of insects, impres-
sion preserved in lime-
stone, 46, 47
Ripple marks and _ rain-
drops, preservation of
marks, 53
Thickness of systems of
strata, diagram, etc.,
60, 61
Sturgeon—ganoid set of fishes
sturgeon belonging to,
248
Stylonurus — scorpion - like
creature, 278, 281
Succession of animal life from
simpler to more com-
plex forms — position
in strata in which fos-
silized remains have
been found, 60—62
326
INDEX
Suffolk :
Fossil remains, 66, 295
Land swallowed up by the
sea, 43
Shark’s teeth found in the
bone-bed of the Red
Crag at Felixstowe,
264, 265
Sussex :
Bones and teeth of the
iguanodon discovered
by Dr. Gideon Mantell,
200
Tilted strata of chalk at
Seaford, 50
a
Tadpoles—young of the Laby-
rinthodonts, 245
Tanqueray’s, Lord, estate,
ancestry of wild cattle
ata on, 17
Tapirs :
Fossil remains found all
over Holarctic region,
66
Migration, results of—liv-
ing tapirs found at pre-
sent day in Sumatra
and Central America,
66
Teeth and jaws :
Arsinoitherium, 154
Bi-foliate canine see sub-
heading Slit
Birds, fossil remains of
birds with teeth, 236
Dromatherium and Dryo-
lestes, lower jaws of,
189
327
Teeth and jaws—contd.
Elephants :
Description of
107-110
Ridges, 110-112
Fishes—Dipterus, peculiar
teeth of, 251
Horse :
Cheek-teeth of modern
horse more complex
teeth,
than in ancestors,
140
Mesohippus, teeth of,
141
Upper molar tooth of a
recent horse, 142
Human teeth :
Distinct from all other
teeth, 80
Photograph of upper and
lower jaw bone, 80
Reduced in number, 79
Iguanodon—serrated mar-
gin of teeth, 199,
200
Importance of, in deter-
mining animal _ to
which a fragment be-
longs, 76
Mammals :
Fossil jaw from Stones-
field slate, 82, 84, 188
Modifications in teeth of
mammals, 81
“* Reduced dentition,’’ 78
Typical number of teeth,
78
(see also sub-headings,
names of animals)
Mammoth, 110, 111
Mastodons, jaws of, 126,
127, 128, 129, 13]
INDEX
Teeth and jaws—contd.
Pig’s teeth :
Description of, number,
arrangement, etc., 76,
78
Front teeth have single
fang, cheek teeth two
fangs, 78, 79
Photographs of, 77, 79
Standard pattern for
teeth of all mammals,
76
Reptiles, teeth of, 81, 82, 83
Ridges — elephant, mam-
moth and mastodon
compared, 110-115
Sea-cow—bony plates in-
stead of teeth, 23
Sharks — enormous teeth,
where found, ete., 263,
264, 265
Slit—crown of toothin lower
jaw divided by slit into
two halves, described
as bi-foliate — pecu-
liarity of the giraffe
and allied animals, 158,
159
Tusks see that title
Two fangs peculiar to mam-
mals, other animals
only single fangs, 78
Tetrabelodon angustidens see
Mastodon
Texas, refer to U.S.A.
Thames, river — amount of
limestone, etc., carried
past Kingston each
year, 43
Theriogzea or land of big ani-
mals—zoological pro-
vince, 63, 64
Theromorph reptiles :
Extinct order of reptiles,
192
Co-existence of, in the two
localities, Russia and
South Africa, 212, 221,
222
Older group than Dino-
saurian reptiles—where
remains had been dis-
covered, ete., 209
Remoteness of the time
when these _ reptiles
lived, 218
Russia, North: Professor
Amalitzky’s discover-
ies, 212-222
Nodules containing skele-
tons, 213-216
(for particular members of
this group see their
names — Pariasaurus,
Dicynodon, Inostran-
sevia, etc.)
Thickness of each system of
strata, diagram, etce.,
60-62
Thigh-bone of Atlantosaurus,
1 ae
Thompson, Vaughan, 290
* Thunder-bolts ’» — Belem-
nite’s cuttle-fish fossils,
270
Tiger—teeth of clouded tiger,
81
Tile-fish, destruction of,
owing to change in
temperature of sea,
near American coast,
31 note
328
INDEX
Theromorph reptiles—contd.
Tilting of strata, 48, 49, 50, 51
Diagram showing effect of
bending or undulation
of earth’s “* crust,’ 52,
yes
Seaford, Sussex, chalk at,
50
Time — stratified deposits,
formation of — esti-
mate of lapse of time,
61, 62
Titanotherium—creature al-
lied to rhinoceros :
Brains much smaller than
those of recent big
animals, 148-151, 209
Horns, 146
Skeleton, picture of, 145
Skull, Pictures of, 146.
147
Tortoise :
Becoming extinct, 28
Fossil remains found in the
Fayum, 125
Giant living tortoise of the
Court House, Mauri-
tius, 28, 29
Size of extinct tortoises—
large size, 191
Toxodon, 9—picture of, 8
Tradition—information con-
cerning extinct ani-
mals handed down
by, 1
Traquair, Prof., 260, 261, 262
Trees — fossilized remains
found in sand of Fay-
um Desert, 124
Triceratops :
Brain, size of, 209
Drawing of, 207
Trilobites—ancient class of
fossils :
Animals which connect
scorpions with the ex-
tinct Trilobites—king-
crab, 280
Number of different kinds—
primitive marine group
allied to the scorpions,
etc., 274.
Specimens in which legs and
antennze are well pre-
served, 275
Trunk of elephant, develop-
ment of, from elon-
gated upper lip of
mastodon, 118—122
Tusks :
Dinoceras, 148
Dinotherium, mastodon-
like creature found in
the Miocene, 117, 118
Elephants — Indian and
African elephants com-
pared — specimens of
tusks in Natural His-
tory Museum, 99, 100,
101
Tetrabelodon angustidens,
116, 117, 120, 121
Meritherium, 129
U
Uganda—five-horned giraffe,
specimen shot by Sir
Harry Johnston, 158
Okap:-skin and skulls dis-
covered by Sir Harry
Johnston, 161, 163
INDEX
United States of America:
Atlantosaurus, thigh-bone
of, from Jurassic rocks,
ete 1 oa 198
Coccosteus found in De-
vonian rocks of Ohio,
256, 217
Dimetrodon from the Per-
mian strata of Texas,
210, 212
Dinoceros, skeletons found
in Upper Eocene of
Wyoming, 147
Didosaurian reptiles— pro-
fusion in which bones
have been discovered—
skill and suecess of
American naturalists,
etc., 206
Ichthyornis, toothed bird
from chalk of Kansas,
237
Mastodon remains found in
bogs, etc., 102
Scorpion-like creature from
Pennsylvania, 281
Shark’s teeth found in
Maryland, 264
Stone-lilies from lIowa—
photograph, 288
Trilobite from Silurian
rocks of New York,
DiAeono
Urus or bull of Julius Cesar,
6s 7
Skull, picture of, 17
WwW
Wales—shells of Lingula, dis-
covered in Cambrian
rocks, 272, 273
Warsaw—Professor Amalitz-
ky’s discoveries at
Archangel, workshop
at Warsaw, 216
Water-birds— extinct Hesper-
ornis, ete., 244
Whale-like reptiles—Ichthyo-
saurus, 226
Whales :
Size of, comparisons be-
tween size of recent
and extinct animals,
166, 223
Skull of, mistaken for that
of a reptile, 76
White rhinoceros or square-
mouthed African rhi-
noceros see Rhinoceros
Winged reptiles see Ptero-
dactyles
Wings :
Birds see that title
Insects — fossilized wings,
preservation in strati-
fied rock, 46, 47
Pterodactyles, flying rep-
tiles—wings compared
with birds and bats,
PRIS Daye Bis
Swimming organs, pen-
guins use their wings
as, 244
Winton, Mr. de, 125
Wolf—common grey wolf—
extinct in England,
still existing in Europe,
14, 16
Wombats—living specimens
in Australias, size of,
compared with gigan-
tic extinct creatures of
the same kind, 166
a0
INDEX
Woodward, Miss, 130
Worcestershire — fishes with
head and body shields
found in “* cornstones,”’
257
Wyoming, skeleton of the
Diplodocus excavated
at, 204
Yy
Young animals—features re-
sembling ancestor 5
which disappear on at-
taining full size, 106
Zebra :
Africa, zebra common in, 20
Okapi—hybrid or mule be-
tween zebra and giraffe
theory, 164
Photograph of living zebra,
19
Zonurus giganteus great gir-
dled lizard — photo-
graph, 196
Zoo-geographical map, 63-66
Butler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and London,
331
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