Animals Before Man 



three toes on the hind foot,* though some of 

 them were either too large, or not built right 

 for walking on their hind legs alone. In the 

 matter of size all were fairly large, while some 

 were twice the bulk of an elephant and much 

 the largest animals of their day. 



The predentate dinosaurs appear in the Ju- 

 rassic, and this period saw the development of 

 the stegosaurs, or plated lizards, perhaps the 

 most remarkable among them, if not the most 

 remarkable of animals. They have often been 

 described, but are quite too imjDortant to be 

 omitted ; besides, they are never described twice 

 alike. The name Stegosatimis was ap|)lied to 

 them on account of the presence of enormous 

 bony plates and spines along the back and tail. 

 There were two parallel rows of plates com- 

 mencing just back of the head and continuing 

 nearly to the end of the tail, which was armed 

 mth two pairs of huge spines. These plates 

 were thin, from ^ to 1^ inch thick, and increased 

 in size from the head to the hips and then sud- 

 denly decreased. While the neck plates were 



* In some cases also a small first or inner toe, as in birds. 



170 



