First Expedition to Kansas Chalk 49 



shape. Back of the neck are twenty-three large dor- 

 sal vertebrae, followed by six pygals, as Dr. Willis- 

 ton calls them, to which the hind arches and paddles 

 are attached. The body terminates in an eel-like 

 tail of over eighty elements, each strengthened by 

 a dorsal spine above and a V-shaped bone, called a 

 chevron, below; so that a vertical section of the 

 lizard would have a diamond shape. 



But see! an enemy in the distance is attracting 

 our reptile's attention. It sets its four powerful 

 paddles in motion, and unrolling its forked tongue 

 from beneath its windpipe, throws it forward with 

 a threatening hiss, the only note of defiance it can 

 raise. The flexible body and long eel-like tail set 

 up their serpentine motion, and the vast mass of 

 animal life, over thirty feet in length, rushes for- 

 ward with ever-increasing speed through water 

 that foams away on either side and gurgles in a long 

 wake behind. 



The great creature strikes its opponent with the 

 impact of a racing yacht and piercing heart and 

 lungs with its powerful ram, leaves a bleeding 

 wreck upon the water. Then raising its head and 

 fore paddles into the air, it bids defiance to the 

 whole brute creation, of which it is monarch. 



A noble specimen of this great ram-nosed Tylo- 

 saur is now mounted as a panel on the wall of the 

 American Museum, in New York, at the head of 



