DINOSAURS 183 



the present day. Twenty different skulls of this kind have been 

 found, and Professor Marsh places the horned Dinosaurs in a 

 separate family, to which he has given the name Ceratopsidte, or 

 horn-faced. Their remains come from the Laramie beds, believed 

 to be of Cretaceous age, but representing a remarkably mixed fauna 

 and flora, so that some have considered them to be Tertiary. The 

 strata containing these fossils are very rich in organic remains, 

 and have yielded not only other Dinosaurs, but Plesiosaurs, 

 crocodiles, turtles, many small reptiles, a few birds, fishes, and 

 small mammals. The Ceratops beds are of fresh-water or brackish 

 origin, and can now be traced for nearly eight hundred miles 

 along the east flank of the Eocky Mountains. 



In this Dinosaur we find the fore feet larger than usual in 

 proportion to the hind limbs, and there can be no doubt that it 

 walked on all fours. Its length was about 19 feet 8 inches. The 

 original estimate of Professor Marsh was about 25 feet, but 

 Mr. Gilmore, who made the model shown in Plates XXVII. and 

 XXVIII., has taken out six vertebrae so that the length is now 

 reduced to 19 feet 8 inches. All the vertebra and limb-bones 

 are solid. The brain was smaller in proportion to the skull 

 than in any known vertebrate. 



The teeth are remarkable in having two distinct roots. The 

 wedge-like form of the skull is also very peculiar. The two large 

 horns come immediately over the eyes, and the small one above 

 the nose ; this Dinosaur was, therefore, well provided with 

 weapons of offence, such as would be highly useful in driving 

 away or wounding carnivorous enemies. The back part of the 

 skull rises up into a kind of huge crest, and this during life was 

 protected by a special fringe of bony plates. Such an arrange- 

 ment doubtless formed an effective shield to ward off blows when 

 one Triceratops was fighting another, as bulls or buffaloes of the 



