Animals Before Man 



numbers. It was a reptilian world ; there were 

 liiige dinosaurs thrice the bulk of the largest 

 elephant, feeding upon leaves and rushes ; there 

 were little dinosaurs no larger than a chicken, 

 while the wolves and panthers of to-day were 

 represented by swift, fierce carnivorous forms 

 that preyed upon theii^ weaker brethren. 



The dinosaurs form an order of reptiles 

 without any very near living relatives. Being 

 reptiles, it is quite natural that they should be 

 related, though distantly, to crocodiles and alli- 

 gators, but it may seem strange that they 

 should also claim kinship with birds. It is at 

 first a little difficult to imagine that a tiny 

 humming-bird could have anything in common 

 with a huge, lumbering reptile like Bronto- 

 saurus, sixty feet long; but it is also strange 

 that a mouse should be in anywise related to 

 an elephant, as he is. And yet, apart from 

 size and dress, the dinosaurs have as many 

 points of structure in common with birds as 

 they do with crocodiles. A very obvious fea- 

 ture of some dinosaurs is a three-toed foot ; but 

 while this is so very bird-like in aj^pearance, it 



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