THE CHALK PERIOD 



reptiles. "So long," says Professor F. A. Lucas, "as 

 Triceratops faced an adversary he must have been practi- 

 cally invulnerable, but, as he was the largest animal of 

 his time, it is probable that his combats were mainly 

 with those of his own kind, and the subject of dispute 

 some fair female upon whom rival suitors had cast 

 covetous eyes. What a sight it would have been to 

 have seen two of these big brutes in mortal combat, as 

 they charged upon each other with all the impetus to be 

 derived from ten tons of infuriate flesh ! We may picture 

 to ourselves horn clashing upon horn, or glancing from 

 each bony shield until some skilful stroke or unlucky slip 

 placed one combatant at the mercy of his adversary. . . . 



"A pair of Triceratop^s horns in the National Museum 

 (at Washington) bears witness to such encounters, for one 

 is broken midway between tip and base ; and that it was 

 broken during life is evident from the fact that the stump 

 is healed and rounded over, while the size of the horns 

 shows that their owner reached a ripe old age." 



In connection with the concluding part of the last 

 sentence it should be mentioned that reptiles, like fishes, 

 but unlike birds and mammals, continue to grow through- 

 out their entire span of life, so that unusually large 

 bodily size is, at all events as a rule, an indication of 

 advanced age. As regards general appearance Triceratops 

 may, perhaps, be best described as a reptilian rhinoceros, 

 with the proviso that the tail was much larger and thicker 

 than in that group of animals, and passed insensibly into 

 the body, as in reptiles generally, while the number and 

 arrangement of the horns were different. 



254 



