196 



EXTINCT MONSTERS 



with a few small specimens in our pocket, or in a bag at our 

 back, can hardly realise how arduous must be the work of 

 finding, digging out, and transporting for such long distances, 

 the remains of the monsters of Kansas, and other parts of North 

 America. 1 



Leiodon proriger (Cope) was abundant in the old North 

 American Cretaceous sea, and reached a length of seventy-five 

 feet. It had a long projecting muzzle, somewhat like the snout 

 of a sturgeon. Platycarpus and Tylosaurus had peculiarly sharp- 

 pointed heads (see Figs. 69, 70, and 71). 



A few words may be added here with regard to Professor 

 Cope's important discovery of Leiodon a genus already alluded 



FIG. 71. Snout of Tylosaurus, palatal view. (After Marsh.) 



to as having been founded by Sir Eichard Owen. The type 

 specimen of Leiodon dyspelor, 2 which first indicated the 

 characters of this wonderful species, was obtained from the 

 yellow beds of the Niobrara epoch of the Jornada del 

 Muerto, near Fort McRae, New Mexico. The greater part of 

 the remains have been described by Professor Leidy. But a 



1 Mr. Charles H. Sternberg, who has spent his life collecting fossils for Cope, 

 Osborn, von Zittel and others, has recently published his experiences in a 

 delightful little volume (illustrated), under the title The Life of a Fossil 

 Hunter, American Nature Series, Henry Holt and Co., New York. It is a 

 most readable book, written with great enthusiasm. 



2 We retain the old spelling with the e as being nearer to the Greek, although 

 Professor Cope writes it " Liodou." 



