102 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 



as well, there is, nevertheless, a fascination about this 

 work of fashioning a bone out of scores, possibly hun- 

 dreds, of fragments, and watching the irregular bits of 

 stone shaping themselves into a mosaic that forms a 

 portion of some creature, possibly quite new to science, 

 and destined to bear a name as long as itself. And thus, 

 after many days of toil, the bone that millions of years 

 before sank into the mud of some old lake-bottom or was 

 buried in the sandy shoals of an ancient river, is brought 

 to light once more to help tell the tale of the creatures of 

 the past. 



One bone might convey a great deal of information; 

 on the other hand it might reveal very little ; for, while 

 it is very painful to say so, the popular impression that 

 it is possible to reconstruct an animal from a single bone, 

 or tell its size and habits from a tooth is but partially 

 correct, and sometimes "the eminent scientist" has 

 come to grief even with a great many bones at his dis- 

 posal. Did not one of the ablest anatomists describe 

 and figure the hip-bones of a Dinosaur as its shoulder- 

 blade, and another, equally able, reconstruct a reptile 

 "hind side before," placing the head on the tail! This 

 certainly sounds absurd enough; but just as absurd 

 mistakes are made by men in other walks of life, often 

 with far more deplorable results. 



Before passing to the restoration of the exterior of 

 animals it may be well to say something of the manner 

 in which the skeleton of an extinct animal may be re- 

 constructed and the meaning of its various parts inter- 

 preted. For the adjustment of the muscles is depend- 

 ent on the structure of the skeleton, and putting on the 

 muscles means blocking out the form, details of external 

 appearance being supplied by the skin and its accessories 

 of hair, scales, or horns. Let us suppose in the present 

 instance that we are dealing with one of the great 



