DINOSAURS. 8s 
saurus, were small, and some of the fingers ended in powerful 
claws, which no doubt it used to good purpose. 
Perhaps the most remarkable of all the Dinosaurs was a diminu- 
tive creature only two feet in length, which was related to those 
we have just been considering, and whose skeleton has been 
found almost entire in the now famous Lithographic Stone of 
Solenhofen in Bavaria. Of this unique type, the Compsogna- 
thus, the skeleton of which is in many ways so bird-like, Professor 
Huxley remarks, “It is impossible to look at the conformation 
of this strange reptile and to doubt that it hopped, or walked, in 
Fic. 18.—Skull of Ceratosaurus nasicornis. (After Marsh.) 
an erect or semi-erect position, after the manner of a bird, to 
which its long neck, slight head, and small anterior limbs must 
have given it an extraordinary resemblance.” (See Fig. 19.) 
At the head of this chapter are placed the words of Dr. 
Mantell, “‘ Fossils have been eloquently and appropriately termed 
Medals of Creation,” and the eloquent passage by which those 
words are followed may be transcribed here. He goes on to 
say; “Ner as, an accomplished numismatist, even when the 
inscription of an ancient and unknown coin is illegible, can 
from the half-obliterated effigy, and from the style of art, 
determine with precision the people by whom, and the period 
