on the whole more lizard-like. The creature was about four 

 feet long. 



The researches of Baron Nopcsa show that this Dinosaur was 

 provided with a thin but well-developed armour, consisting of 

 large, thin, and flat bony plates, feebly punctured. The base of 

 the skull is very bird-like, as in some of the group Theropoda. 

 The eyes had no sclerotic plates, as Mr. Hulke thought. 



But there were in existence during the long Jurassic period 

 other and even stranger forms of Dinosaurs with armour. One 

 of these, only imperfectly known at present, was the many- 

 spined Polacanthus. 1 This remarkable monster had the whole 



FIG. 59. Skeleton of a small Dinosaur, Hypsiloplwdon Foxi, from Wealden 

 strata, Isle of Wight. Restored by Professor J. W. Hulke, F.R.S. From the 

 Philosophical Transactions oftlie Eoyal Society, vol. 173. 



region of the loins and haunches protected by a continuous 

 sheet of bony plate armour, rising into knobs and spines, after 

 the fashion of the shield or carapace of certain extinct armadillos 

 known as Glyptodonts (see Chap. XV.). Fig. 60 shows a partial 

 reconstruction of the skeleton. The shaded parts of the drawing 

 indicate the parts actually preserved, the rest is reconstructed 

 with the help of the bones of an allied Dinosaur : e.g. Stegosaurus. 

 From this we see that Polacanthus was a reptile of low stature. 

 It was a slow-moving vegetable feeder, according to Baron Nopcsa, 



1 From Greek polus, many, and acantha, spine. 



