RULERS OF THE ANCIENT SEAS 35 



impossible. 1 On the other hand, it is doubtful if any 

 of them could tie their necks into knots as Cope allowed 

 Elasmosaurus to be depicted. 



Ichthyosaurus and Plesiosaur played their roles of 

 rulers of the seas in the Pageant of the Past and in due 

 time passed off the stage of life to give place to others. 



The next group of reptiles to appear on the scene, 

 the great marine reptiles called Mosasaurs, practically 

 extended their empire around the world, from New 

 Zealand to North America. 



We properly call these reptiles great, for so they 

 were; but there are degrees of greatness, and there is a 

 universal tendency to think of the animals that have be- 

 come extinct as much greater than those of the present 

 day, to magnify the reptile that we never saw as well as 

 the fish that "got away," and it may be safely said that 

 the greatest of animals will shrink before a two-foot 

 rule. As a matter of fact, no animals are known to have 

 existed that were larger than the whales; and, while 

 there are now no reptiles that can compare in bulk with 

 the Dinosaurs, there were few Mosasaurs that exceeded 

 in size a first-class Crocodile. An occasional Mosasaur 

 reaches a length of forty feet, but such are rare indeed, 

 and one even twenty-five feet long is a large specimen, 2 

 while the great Mugger, or Man-eating Crocodile, 

 grows, if permitted, to a length of twenty-five or even 



1 A striking instance of this is shown in some of Dimock's wonderful 

 photographs of leaping Tarpon in which the head is shown bent at an 

 angle to the body that is quite impossible theoretically. 



2 It is surprising to find Professor Cope placing the length of the Mosa- 

 saurs at 70, 80, or 100 feet, as there is not the slightest basis for even the 

 lowest of these figures. Professor Williston, the best authority on the 

 subject, states, in his volume on the "Cretaceous Reptiles of Kansas," 

 that there is not in existence any specimen of a Mosasaur indicating a 

 greater length than 45 feet. 



