436 ELEMENTARY GEOLOGY 
appearance of each of these groups would be quite like 
Fic, 255. 
A restoration of Archeopterix. A Juratrias 
reptilian bird. (After Owen.) 
that of the present. The 
forests would have been 
found to consist of oak, 
pine, spruce, maple, etc.; 
many of the birds would 
have been songsters, 
and not the crude, rep- 
tilian forms of the Meso- 
zoic; and many of the 
insects would have belonged to the types like the ant, 
butterfly, bee, etc. 
Little by little the strange 
and ancient species have dis- 
appeared (Fig. 260), and even 
since man came upon the earth, 
some of the old forms have 
been destroyed. The mastodon, 
a huge creature resembling the 
elephant, but bearing a fur, has 
disappeared since the coming of 
man. Various large and awk- 
ward birds have even disap- 
peared within historic times. 
This is notably true in the case 
of some birds of New Zealand, 
and the great auk of the Lab- 
rador coast. Even now the 
agency of man is at work in 
the destruction of many mam- 
Hesperornis regalis. A bird with teeth. 
(Cretaceous. ) 
mals and birds, among the former notably the bison and elephant, 
