THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 



SOUTHEAST PAVILION 

 DINOSAUR HALL 



"Thou speakest of times that long 

 have passed away." 



Schiller. 



In this hall are skeletons of fossil reptiles and fishes be- 

 longing to an older geological period than do the specimens 

 in the hall previously visited. The dinosaurs were the great 

 terrestrial vertebrates of their day, the Age of Reptiles 

 (3,000,000 to 10,000,000 years ago), and there was a great 

 variety of forms, but all had long hind limbs and long and 

 generally massive tail. 20 



Dominant over other specimens is the amphibious dino- 

 saur Brontosaurus, mounted in the center of the hall. This 

 specimen is sixty-six feet eight inches in length, sixteen feet 

 in height, and the animal is estimated to have weighed 

 thirty-five tons. Beside it is a fossilized tree trunk, part of 

 it carbonized or turned into coal, while the rest is silicified 

 or turned into stone. 



At the right is the large carnivorous dinosaur Allosaurus, 

 mounted to represent the animal feeding on the carcass of 

 a Brontosaurus. At the left of Brontosaurus stand two 

 specimens of the duck-bill dinosaur Trachodon, and imme- 

 diately in front of them is an extraordinary "mummified" 

 specimen of the same species, in which a large part of the 



20 Dinosaurs .25. 



104 



