98 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
is pretty safe to say that it would not be far 
from 20 tons, and that one would devour at 
the very least something over 700 pounds of 
leaves or twigs or plants each day — more, if 
the animal felt really hungry. 
But here we must, even if reluctantly, curb 
our imagination a little and consider another 
point : the cold-blooded, sluggish reptiles, as 
we know them to-day, do not waste their en- 
ergies in rapid movements, or in keeping the 
temperature of their bodies above that of the 
air, and so by no means require the amount 
of food needed by more active, warm-blooded 
animals. Alligators, turtles, and snakes will 
go for weeks, even months, without food, and 
while this applies more particularly to those 
that dwell in temperate climes and during 
their winter hibernation practically suspend 
the functions of digestion and respiration, it is 
more or less true of all reptiles. And as there 
is little reason for supposing that reptiles be- 
haved in the past any differently from what 
they do in the present, these great Dinosaurs 
may, after all, not have been gifted with such 
ravenous appetites as one might fancy. Still, 
