EVOLUTION OF REPTILES. 



mailed or scaled fishes with backbones and their more remote 

 ancestors of the Ordovician Epoch. 



Later we find some of the denizens of the ocean beginning to 

 take to land and developing reptile characteristics, and through- 

 out that vast stretch of time, known as the Carboniferous Period, 

 when what is now coal was 

 living vegetation upon the 

 surface of the Earth, the 

 reptiles were slowly but 

 surely evolving from Am- 

 phibians to true reptiles 

 of a higher order. When 

 we arrive at the Mesozoic 

 Period we find fossil re- 

 mains in more or less pro- 

 fusion of great dragon-like 

 reptiles, some of which were 

 nearly a hundred feet long. 

 These fossil remains have 

 been put together, and 

 are now to be seen in 

 some of the great mu- 

 seums in Europe and 

 America. 



In the Tertiary Period 

 the reign of mammals 

 proper begins, and the large 

 reptiles were superseded by 

 large mammals such as the 

 Arsinoitherium, Dinoceros, Tetrabelodon, Three-toed Horse, and 

 others. Ascending higher into the most recent strata known as 

 the PHocene, we find the fossil remains of such animals as the 

 Mastodon, Woolly Rhinoceros, Irish Deer, Giant Sloth, and Mam- 

 moth, the immediate descendants of which are now living upon 

 the surface of our Earth. As the ages roll on many of the species 

 of animals now living will in turn become extinct ; some of their 

 remains will be covered up and serve as evidence to future races 

 of men. These creatures will, however, not be replaced bj^ higher 

 forms of their kind, for man will eventually overrun the whole 

 of the habitable earth, and all the large fauna will either become 

 extinct or be domesticated for man's use or pleasure. 



Fig. 2. — The fossil remains of a real bird known as 

 the Lizard-tailed bird ox Archceopteryx. It was 

 found in the Solenhofen limestone of Bavaria. 

 This strata of rock dates back to the Jurassic 

 Period, therefore the bird lived on the surface 

 of the earth millions of years ago. This is a 

 more recent creature than the Flying Reptiles, 

 but still retaining reptilian characteristics. 

 The ArchtEopteryx was feathered. The back- 

 bone, however, does not terminate at the root 

 of the tail like the birds of to-day, but extends 

 the entire length, the feathers jutting out at the 

 sides. From specimen in Berlin Museum. 



