CHAPTER VL 



DINOSAURS {continued). 



" Fossils have been eloquently and appropriately termed ' Medals of 

 Creation.'" — Dr. Mantell. 



When any tribe of plants or animals becomes very flourishing, 

 and spreads over the face of the earth, occupying regions far 

 apart from one another, where the geographical and other con- 

 ditions, such as climate, are unlike, its members will inevitably 

 develop considerable differences among themselves. 



During the great Mesozoic period, Dinosaurs spread over a 

 large part of the world ; they became very numerous and powerful. 

 Just as the birds and beasts (quadrupeds) of to-day show an almost 

 endless variety, according to the circumstances in which they are 

 placed, so that great and powerful order of reptiles we are now 

 considering ran riot, and gave rise to a variety of forms, or types. 

 Those described in the last chapter were heavy, slow-moving 

 Dinosaurs, of great proportions, and were all herbivorous creatures, 

 apparently without weapons of offence or defence. 



The group Theropoda, or " beast-footed " Dinosaurs, that partly 

 form the subject of the present chapter, were all flesh-eating 

 animals ; and, as we shall discover from their fossilised remains, 

 were of less size, and led active lives. In fact, they acted in 

 their day the part played by lions and tigers to-day. 



In the year 1824 that keen observer and original thinker, the 

 Rev. Dr. Buckland, described to the Geological Society of London 

 some remains of a very strange and formidable reptile found in 



