THE EMPIRE OF THE GREAT REPTILES. 175 



Lastly, the reptiles, in this age of their imperial sway, cul- 

 minated in the Dinosaurians, animals far above any modern 

 Reptilia in the perfection of their organisation, and many of 

 them of gigantic size. Just as the Pterosaurs filled the place 

 now occupied by the birds, so the Dinosaurs filled that repre- 

 sented by the mammals, or rather they took up a place holding 

 some close relations with boih the birds and the mammals. 



Fig. 1^1.— Hadrosaiirtis Fottlkii {Cope). An Herbivorous Dinosaur, 28 feet long.— 



After Hawkins's restoration. 



There were thus reptilian animals which on the one hand were 

 the elephants and lions of their time, and on the other bore 

 a grotesque resemblance to creatures so unlike these as the 

 Ostriches, in so far as their anatomical structure was concerned ; 

 while it is evident that their whole organisation places them in 

 the highest position possible within the reptilim class. Some 



