THE CHORUS OF MAN’S STAGE 
On land the dinosaurs attained enormous stature. Here 
we find Brontosaurus, an herb-eating creature balancing its 
huge horizontal carcass of sixty feet, in combined length of 
neck and tail, on four stocky legs. Equally grotesque was 
the great armored Stegosaurus with its row of vertical 
plates over the backbone from head to tip of tail. 
Finally, the reptiles, as represented by the pterodactyls 
and others, invaded even the air. They did not occupy 
it alone, however, for in the same period the first birdlike 
animals appear, in the form of the Archaeopteryx. 
Still antedating the age of mammals, we pass on into the 
Cretaceous period, in the vegetation of which appear for 
the first time the angiosperms which form the dominant 
dynasty of modern plants. The plants had hitherto been 
represented by the gymnosperms, whose seeds are naked. 
The angiosperms have true seed vessels. To this class a 
great variety of trees, shrubs, and herbs of the present day 
belong. 
Among land reptiles, the dinosaurs now attained their 
most formidable features for attack and defense in Tricera- 
tops, with his shieldlike crest, sharp beak, and great, 
pointed horns. Yet Marsh remarks that he had the larg- 
est head with the smallest brain of the reptile race. Turtles, 
lizards, snakes, and crocodiles were among other reptile 
fauna of the period. The flying reptiles attained great 
spread of wings, possibly twenty-five feet, and doubtless 
flew with great power. 
At sea, also, the reptiles still ruled. A species of sea 
turtle reached the enormous size of twelve feet in diameter, 
with a skull larger than that of a horse. The plesiosaurs 
and other marine reptiles still continued in giant forms. 
True sea-diving birds of large size are found, as well as 
smaller flying species. Among the fishes, a transition had 
taken place to the prevailing dominance of the modern 
bony types. 
And now, after the long ages of invertebrates, fishes, 
amphibians, and reptiles, and finally of birds, we arrive at 
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