n8 EXTINCT MONSTERS. 



of fresh-water or brackish origin, and can now be traced for nearly 

 eight hundred miles along the east flank of the Rocky 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 twenty-five feet. All 

 the vertebrae 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 eves, 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 

 present day fight with their horns. The mouths of these Dinosaurs 

 formed a kind of beak, sheathed in horn. 



The body as well as the skull was protected, but the nature 

 and position of the defensive parts in different forms cannot yet 

 be determined with certainty. Various spines, bones, and plates 

 have been found that evidently were meant for the protection of 

 the creature's body, and belonged to the skin. Probably some of 

 these were placed on the back, behind the crest of the skull ; 

 some may have defended the throat, as in Stegosaurus. Alto- 

 gether, Triceratops is very different to any other Dinosaur. One 

 cannot help picturing it rather as a fierce rhinoceros-like animal. 

 In the restoration (Plate XI., Frontispiece) our artist has given it a 

 thick skin, rather like that of the rhinoceros, only indicating 

 small bony plates, etc., here and there. 



Professor Marsh thinks that as the head increased in size to 

 bear its armour of bony plates, the nock first, then the fore feet, 

 and then the whole skeleton was specially modified to support 



