CHAPTER {Vis 
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 
