56 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
life. The stronger could more readily capture 
the weaker, while the fishes would gradually 
perish through the constant freshening of the 
water. With the death of any considerable 
class, the balance of food-supply would be lost, 
and many large species would disappear from 
the scene. The most omnivorous and enduring 
would longest resist the approach of starvation, 
but would finally yield to inexorable fate — the 
last one caught by the shifting bottom among 
shallow pools, from which his exhausted ¢ ener- 
gies could not extricate sig i 
Like the “Fossil man” the sea-serpent — 
flourishes perennially in the newspapers and, 
despite the fact that he is now mainly regarded 
as a joke, there have been many attempts to 
habilitate this mythical monster and place him 
on a foundation of firm fact. The most earn- 
est of these was that of M. Oudemans, who 
expressed his belief in the existence of some 
rare and huge seal-like creature whose occa- 
sional appearance in southern waters gave rise 
* Cope: “ The Vertebrata of the Cretaceous Formations of 
the West,” p. 50, being the “Report of the United States Geo- 
logical Survey of the Territories,” Vol. II. 
