vi PREFACE BY DR. HENRY WOODWARD. 



from Professor Owen to undertake the restorations of 

 extinct animals which still adorn the lower grounds of the 

 Crystal Palace at Sydenham. 



But the discoveries of later years have shown that the 

 Dicynodon and Labyrinthodon, instead of being toad-like 

 in form, we're lacertilian or salamander-like reptiles, with 

 elongated bodies and moderately long tails ; that the 

 Iguanodon did not usually stand upon "all-fours," but more 

 frequently sat up like some huge kangaroo with short 

 fore limbs ; that the horn on its snout was really on its 

 wrist ; that the Megalosaurus, with a more slender form 

 of skeleton, had a somewhat similar erect attitude, and the 

 habit, perhaps, of springing upon its prey, holding it with 

 its powerful clawed hands, and tearing it with its formidable 

 carnivorous teeth. 



Although the Bernissart Iguanodon has been to us a 

 complete revelation of what a Dinosaur really looked like, 

 it is to America, and chiefly to the discoveries of Marsh, 

 that we owe the knowledge of a whole series of new 

 reptiles and mammals, many of which will be found 

 illustrated within these pages. 



Of long and short-tailed Pterodactyles we now know 

 almost complete skeletons and details of their patagia 

 or flying membranes. The discovery of the long-tailed 

 feathered bird with teeth the Archaeopteryx, from the 

 Oolite of Solenhofen, is another marvellous addition to 

 our knowledge ; whilst Marsh's great Hesperornis, a wing- 

 less diving bird with teeth, and his flying toothed bird, the 

 Ichthyornis dispar, are to us equally surprising. 



Certainly, both in singular forms of fossil reptilia and in 

 early mammals, North America carries off the palm. 



Of these the most remarkable are Marsh's Stegosaurus, 



