52 EXTINCT MONSTERS 



Arbroatli paving-stone. The quarrymen, in the course of their 

 work, came upon and dug out large pieces of the fossilised 

 remains of this creature. Its hard coat of jointed armour bore 

 on its surface curious wavy markings that suggested to their 

 minds the sculptured feathers on the wings of cherubs of all 

 subjects of the chisel the most common. Hence they christened 

 these remains " Seraphim." They did not succeed in getting 

 complete specimens that could be pieced together ; and the part 

 to which this fanciful name was given turned out to be part of the 

 under side below the mouth. It was composed of several large 

 plates, two of which are not unlike the wings of a cherub in 

 shape. Hugh Miller says in his classic work, The Old Red Sand- 

 stone "the form altogether, from its wing-like appearance, its 

 feathery markings, and its angular points, will suggest to the 

 reader the origin of the name given it by Forfarshire work- 

 men." 



A correct restoration, in proportion to the fragments found in 

 the Lower Old Eed Sandstone, would give a creature measuring 

 nearly six feet in length, and more than a foot across. Pterygotus 

 anglicus may therefore be justly considered a monster crustacean. 



The illustrious Cuvier, who, in the eighteenth century, founded 

 the science of comparative anatomy (see p. 5), astonished the 

 scientific world by his bold interpretations of fossil bones. From 

 a few of the chief bones he could restore the skeleton of an entire 

 animal, and determine its habits and mode of living. When 

 other wise men were unable to read the writing of Nature on the 

 walls of her museum in the shape of fossil bones he came 

 forward, like a second Daniel, to interpret the signs, and so in- 

 structed us how to restore the world's lost creations. Hugh 

 Miller submitted the fragments found at Balruddery to the cele- 

 brated naturalist Agassiz, a pupil of Cuvier, who had written a 



