Mesozoic Reptilian Age. 91 



The Teliost fishes represented in the Cretaceous period include 

 about 50 species, and belong to the Salmon, Herring and Perch fami- 

 lies, &c. 



The great Reptile tribes of the Jurassic are still represented in the 

 Cretaceous, especially in America. "According to Cope, 147 species 

 of reptiles have been described from the Cretaceous of North America. " * 

 Of these 50 are Mososaurs. "These reptiles are supposed to have 

 been web-footed and aquatic in habit, while, at the same time, Carnivor- 

 ous. The tail was flattened, long and powerful, and thus fitted for 

 sculling through the water. The New Jersey species was 24 feet long. " 2 

 Other species were more snakelike, and 60 or 70 feet long. The}' are 

 related to the Monitor of the Nile. Forty-eight species belong to 

 the turtle family. One found in New Jersey was almost 30 feet 

 long and 15 wide. Its flattened ribs were not coalesced together to 

 form the shell as in the adult turtles now. Eighteen species were 

 Dinosaurs, and some of them were immense. One had thigh bones six 

 feet long. The thigh bones of another were eight feet two inches long. 

 ' ' The animal itself, if its proportions were at all similar to those of a 

 crocodile, must have been 115 feet long." 3 There were six species of 

 Pterosaurs. These flying reptiles were toothless and their jaws were 

 probably sheathed with horn, like the birds. One of them had tooth- 

 less jaws four feet long and was 22 feet from tip to tip of wings. 



Some of the European Jurassic reptiles are also found in the Creta- 

 ceous. In 1870 and 1871, Marsh discovered in Ne\v Jersey and Kansas 

 five wading birds, five swimmers, and six species with teeth. The jaws 

 of three of the species were long and slender, the teeth were sharp, 

 conical and set in sockets, and numbered probably 40 in each jaw. 

 These birds were about the size of a pigeon and were probably flying; 

 birds. The other three were five or six feet high but not flyers. 



No Mammals have been found in the Cretaceous formations. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



TERTIARY AGE OF MAMMALS. 



The Tertiary Period is divided into the Eocene (the oldest), Miocene 

 (the middle), and Pliocene (the latest). Epochs. Of plants nearly all 

 the genera of Angiosperms (Dicotyledonous plants and common trees) 

 and of Endogens ( Monocotyledonous plants including grasses, cereals, 

 Palm trees, &c. ) were in existence that we now have, but the species 

 were almost all different. The climate of Europe and America was 

 vastly warmer than now. Sequoias, Magnolias, Cedars and Cypress 

 !Le Conte, 470. 2 Dana, 473. 3 Le Conte, 468. 



