74 EXTINCT MONSTERS 
been taken by a higher type—the mammal. As reptiles, they 
were eminently a success; but, then, they were only reptiles, and 
therefore were at last left behind in the struggle for existence, 
until finally they died out, at the end of the Cretaceous period, 
when certain important geographical and other changes took 
place, helping to cause the extinction of many other strange forms 
of life, as we shall see later on. 
They had a wide geographical range; for their remains have 
been discovered in Arctic regions, in Europe, India, Ceram, 
North America, the east coast of Africa, Australia, New Zealand, 
and Chili. 
In American deposits they are represented by certain toothless 
forms, to which the names Sauranodon (“toothless lizard”) and 
Baptanodon have been given. These have been discovered by 
Professor Marsh, in the Jurassic strata of the Rocky Mountains. 
They were eight or nine feet long, and in every other respect 
resembled Ichthyosaurs. As we have endeavoured to indicate 
in our illustration, the fish-lizards flourished in seas wherein 
animal, and doubtless vegetable life was very abundant. Any 
one who has collected fossils from the Lias of England will 
have found how full it is of beautiful organic remains, such 
as corals, mollusca, encrinites, sea-urchins, and other echinoids, 
fishes, ete. 
The climate of this period in Europe was mild and genial, or 
even semi-tropical. Coral reefs and coral islands varied the 
landscape. There is just one more point of interest that ought 
not to be omitted; it refers to the manner in which these reptiles 
of the Lias age met their deaths, and were thus buried up in 
their rocky tombs. Sir Charles Lyell and other writers point out 
that the individuals found in those strata must have met with a 
sudden death and quick burial; for if their uncovered bodies 
