122 KANSAS Academy of Science. 



retained in its alimentary canal solid objects so small as are some of these pebbles. 

 But it is known that the crocodiles have a peculiarly small pyloric orifice, wholly 

 preventing the passage of solid bodies, and all such, when taken into the stomach, 

 whether bones or stones, must necessarily be digested, or worn down to an extremely 

 small size, before passing into the intestinal canal. In this respect the pebbles show 

 conclusively a similar disposition of the parts in the plesiosaurs. The food of the 

 plesiosaurs must necessarily have been, from the comparatively small size of the 

 mouth and the absence of any special means to aid in deglutition, the smaller ani- 

 mals that abounded in or upon the water, and this fact may perhaps account for the 

 need of a more active digestion. Certainly nothing short of a small stone quarry 

 would have given material aid to the digestive forces of the mosasaurs. 



Not the least interesting fact connected with these pebbles is the indication they 

 present of a color sense on the part of the reptiles, or, at least, that they selected 

 the most conspicuous ones. It has been suggested that the stones might have re- 

 ceived their shape from the action of the water, and that they, hence, need not have 

 been long in the animal's stomach. This, however, is highly improbable; there is 

 too much uniformity of shape among the smaller ones to have been caused by the 

 action of water. Furthermore, it would have been hardly possible for the animal 

 to have picked up such small stones as many of them are, and it is very evident that 

 the stones were not accidentally swallowed. It is very probable that the pebbles 

 originally were nearly the size of one's fist. 



Yet more interesting is the light that is thrown upon the geography of the Benton 

 sea at the time of the animal's existence. The red quartzite is apparently identical 

 with that from Sioux City, and it is Professor Haworth's opinion that they all came 

 from this region, or the region of the Black Hills. This is interesting both as indi- 

 cating the shore lines at that time and the roving propensities of the animals. 



THE DESCENT OF FACIAL EXPRESSION. 



BY ALTON H. THOMPSON, TOPEKA, KAS. 



It is not a very flattering reflection, perhaps, that the major part of our boasted 

 human nature is animal in its origin, development, and leading characteristics. We 

 talk loftily of our elevation and superiority, and boast of the wonderful things our 

 species has done, and of our wonderful intellectual accomplishments ; and they are 

 wonderful, but by a measure we do not like to apply — i. e., by comparison with the 

 greater line of animal ancestry which lies so close at our backs, rather than with the 

 briefer human lines since our emergence from the animal stage. It is because we 

 are so nearly animal yet that our advancement is, in many respects, so wonderful. 

 We admit that our physical organization is entirely animal, and that our moral na- 

 ture is largely animal yet in its instincts ; for it has not thrown off the thraldom it 

 yet endures, of the long aeons of savagery and animalism from which we have but 

 lately emerged. Indeed, the brief historic period has done but little to release us 

 from the savage influences of our prehistoric ancestry. By special effort, perhaps, 

 under the powerful influence of religious or other emotions, some few minds have 

 been emancipated from this slavery completely, and others again but in part. Some 

 of these become the pilots of their race in their struggle toward a higher and better 

 life. These are the saviors of mankind, which are lifting the race upward into a 

 higher moral atmosphere. But the task is Herculean, for the legacy of primitive 

 morals is continually dragging it backward into the mire. But intellectually we are, 



