490 THE KESTORATION OF EXTINCT ANIMALS. 



Impressions of feathers were known long before the discovery of 

 Archteopteryx; a few have been found in the (jreen River and Floris- 

 sant shales of AVyoniing-, and a Hesperonis in the collection of the State 

 University of Kansas shows traces of the existence of long, soft feathers 

 on the tibia, and very clear imprints of the scales and reticulated skin 

 that covered the tarsus. From the chalk of Kansas, too, came the 

 example of Tylosaur, showing that the back of this animal was deco- 

 rated with tiie crest shown in Mr. Kniuht's restoration, one not unlike 

 that of the modern iguana. From the Laramie sandstone of Montana 

 Mr. Hatcher and Mr. Hutler have obtained the impressions of por- 

 tions of the skin of the groat Dinosaur Thespesius. which show that 

 the covering of this animal consisted largely, if not entirely, of small, 

 irregularly hexagonal iiorny scutes, slightly thickened in the center. 

 The ([uarries of lithographic stone at Solenhofen have yielded a few 

 specimens of Hying reptiles — pterodactyles — which not only verify the 

 correctness of the inference that these creatures possessed membranous 

 wings like the bats, but they show the exact shape-^and it was some- 

 times very curious —of this meml)rane. 



And each and all of these wonderfully preserved specimens serve 

 both to clunk and guide the restorer in his task of clothing the animal 

 as it was in life. 



And all this help is needed, for it is an ea.sy matter to make a wide- 

 sweeping deduction. a])])arently resting on a good ]»asis of fact, and 

 yet erroneous. Remains of the mannnoth and woolly rhinoceros found 

 in Siberia and northern Europe were thought to indicate that at the 

 period when these animals lived the climate was mild — a very natural 

 inference, since the elephants and rhinoceroses we now know are all 

 inhabitants of tropical climes. But the discovery of more or less com- 

 plete specimens makes it evident that the climate was not particularly 

 mild; the animals were simply adapted to it. Instead of ))eing naked, 

 like their modern relatives, the}' were dressed for the climate in a 

 woolly covering. We think of the tiger as prowling through the jun- 

 gles of India, but he ranges .so far noi'th that in some localities this 

 beast preys upon reindeer, which are among the most northern of large 

 mammals, and there the tiger is clad in fairly thick fur. 



When we come to coloring a reconstructed animal we haveabsolutel}' 

 no guide, unless we assume that the larger a creature the more soberl}' 

 will it be colored. The great land animals of to-dav, the elephant and 

 rhinoceros, to say nothing of the aquatic hippopotamus, are very dully 

 colored, and while this somber coloration is to-day a protection, ren- 

 dering these animals less easily seen b}' man than they otherwise would 

 be, yet at the time this color was developing man was not, nor enemies 

 sufficienth' formidable to menace the race of elephantine creatures, 

 for whei'e mere size furnishes sufficient protection one would hardly 

 expect to find protective coloration as well, unless indeed a creature 



