Tlw Reign of Reptiles 



of his tail quite clear of the ground. And the 

 same authority says that on occasion a croco- 

 dile will stand up on its hind legs and make a 

 rush that is a reminiscence of his long-extinct 

 cousin, the dinosaur. 



A point still unsettled is whether the dino- 

 saurs were oviparous or viviparous did they 

 lay eggs, or were the young born alive ? If we 

 are guided by analogy, it might be supposed 

 that, like crocodiles and alligators, these reptiles 

 laid eggs and left them to be hatched by the 

 heat of the sun. But while analogy is often the 

 only guide we have, it is by no means infallible, 

 and rules seem to have been even more subject 

 to exception in the past than now. Thus it is 

 known that the young of the sea-lizards, the 

 ichthyosaurs, were born alive ; and if so, why 

 not the young of dinosaurs? And Professor 

 Marsh thought that he discovered traces of a 

 young animal within a skeleton of the little, 

 bird-like dinosaur Compsognathus from Soleu- 

 hofen. So there the subject rests. 



Abroad most dinosaurs have been discov- 

 ered incidentally by miners or quarrymen, but 



147 



