THE RESTORATION OF EXTINCT ANIMALS. 491 



preyed upon others, when it might be advantageous to enable a preda- 

 tory animal to steal upon its prey. 



Color often exists, or is supposed to, as a sexual character, to ren- 

 der the male of a species attractive to or readily recognizable by the 

 female; but in the case of large animals mere size is quite enough to 

 render it conspicuous, and possibly this may be one of the factors in 

 the dull coloration of large animals. 



So while a green and yellow Triceratops would undoubtedly have 

 been a conspicuous feature in the Cretaceous landscape, from what we 

 know of existing animals it seems but to curb our fancy and, so far as 

 large dinosaurs are concerned, employ the colors of a Rembrandt 

 rather than those of a sign painter. 



Aids, or at least hints, to the coloration of extinct animals are to be 

 found in the coloration of the young of various living species, for as 

 the changes undergone by the embryo are in a measure an epitome of 

 the changes undergone by a species during its evolution, so the brief 

 color phases or markings of the young are considered to represent the 

 ordinary coloring of distant ancestors. Young thrushes are spotted, 

 3'oung ostriches and grebes are irregularly striped, young lions are 

 spotted, and in restoring the early horse, or Hyracothere. Professor 

 Osborn had the animal represented as faintly striped, for the reason 

 that zebras, the wild horses of to-dav.are striped, and because the ass, 

 which is a primitive t3'pe of horse, is also striped over the shoulders, 

 these being hints that the earlier horse-like forms were also striped. 

 Applying the principles just laid down to the model and drawing of 

 Triceratops, it was decided to show him in a fairly thick and smooth 

 skin, for from what we actually know of the covering of large dino- 

 saurs, as shown by Thespesius, the horny scutes of which it is com- 

 posed are so small that they would not show at all in a small model or 

 picture. A few dermal plates have been found in the Triceratops })eds, 

 but these are not definitely known to have belonged to that animal; 

 in fact, there is good reason to believe that they are from another 

 species;^ and so the presence of a row of horny scutes down the center 

 of the back was merely hinted at, while the knee and elbow were 

 given callosities such as might properly have belonged there. 



The sides of the neck were depicted with folds or ridges of skin 

 suggested by those found in the iguana, horned toad, and other lizards, 

 but for reasons given these were not shown as rising into long, deco- 

 rative points, since such would be more likely to occur in small reptiles 

 than in large. And because of his size and the blackish or dull green 

 color of large reptiles, the color of Triceratops was made a dull green- 

 ish gray, lightened beneath into a yellowish hue. 



1 Among the pitfalls bv which the path 'of the restorer is beset is the fact that the 

 bones of different species of ani-uals are often found so associated that they seein to 

 have belonged together, and in the present instance Thespesius is found with Tri- 

 ceratops. 



