THE BIGGEST BEAST 85 



"Dinosauria" and new kinds and complete skeletons of 

 those already known have been discovered in the United 

 States and in Belgium. The leg bones and vertebrae of 

 one of the biggest were found near Oxford, and are in 

 the Oxford Museum ; it received the name Cetiosaurus. 

 Only a few years ago a very complete skeleton of a 

 creature closely allied to Cetiosaurus was with great 

 labour and skill dug out of the Jurassic rocks of Wyoming, 

 U.S.A., by Dr. Holland, at the charges of Mr. Andrew 

 Carnegie. It was known as Diplodocus (referring to 

 certain bones in its tail), and a wonderful cast of the 

 completely reconstructed skeleton was presented to the 

 Natural History Museum in London, when I was 

 Director, by Mr. Carnegie. The skeleton is 84 ft. 

 long; but we must not be mis-led as to the animal's 

 actual bulk by this measurement, for the tail is 46 

 ft. long and whip-like, whilst the neck is 23 ft. 

 long and carries a small head not bigger than that 

 of a cart-horse. The jaws were provided with small peg- 

 like teeth, showing that the beast fed on soft vegetable 

 matter. The body, apart from neck and tail, was really 

 only a little bigger than that of a large elephant, and the 

 limb-bones longer in the proportion of about six to five. 

 Another reptile very similar to these and also found in 

 the mesozoic rocks of the U.S. America is Brontosaurus. 



The fact is that, if we wish to make an intelligent 

 comparison of the sizes of different animals, we have 

 carefully to ascertain not merely the length measurements, 

 but the proportions of the various parts, and the actual 

 bulk and probable weight of the beasts under consideration. 

 Also (and this is a very important and decisive matter) 

 we must know whether the beasts were terrestrial in habit, 

 walking with their bodies raised high on their legs, or 

 whether they were aquatic and swam in the lakes or seas, 

 their bodies buoyed up and supported by the water. By 



