178 THE CHAIN OF LIFE. 



Western America, and described by Cope and by Marsh, 

 indicate that even Ceteosaurtis had. not attained to the maxi- 

 mum of Dinosaurian dimensions. These new animals have 

 vertebrae twenty inches in length and from twelve inches to 



. thirteen inches in the diameter of their bodies, while their 

 lateral processes stretched three and a half feet. The shoulder- 

 blade of one species is five feet in length, and its thigh bone 



• is six feet long. From these measurements Cope concludes 

 that, unlike most other Dinosaurs, it had the fore-feet larger 

 in proportion than the hind-feet, so as to have somewhat the 

 appearance of a large giraffe. The bones of the back have a 

 remarkable cavernous structure, which Cope interprets as indi- 

 cating air cavities, to give lightness, as in the case of the bones 

 of birds ; but Owen suggests that the cavities were filled 

 with cartilage, and that the animals were aquatic in their 

 habits. Evidently in point of size the Dinosaurs had a better 

 claim than even Behemoth to be called the " chief of the 

 ways of God." Some of them, however, were of small size, 

 and probably active and bird-like in their movements. One of 

 these is the animal represented in Fig. 154, a species from the 

 lithographic limestone of Solenhofen.^ 



Nothing in the life of the Mesozoic has so seized on the imagi- 

 nation of evolutionists as the links of connection between birds 

 and reptiles, which has even been introduced by Huxley into 

 the classification of animals, by his grouping these heretofore 

 very distinct classes in one gigantic and comprehensive class 

 of Sauropsida, It is necessary, therefore, to glance at these 

 connections, and if possible to arrive at some conception of 

 their true value. The links which connect the reptiles and the 

 birds are twofold. First, that between the Dinosaurs and the 

 ostrich tribe,2 and, secondly, that between the Pterodactyls and 



^ Cope has proposed the names Camerosaurus , Amphiaclius, etc., for 

 these problematical animal?. Marsh names them Titanosaurus, Ailanto- 

 %aurus, etc., while Owen holds that some of them at least are identical 

 with his genus Chondrosteosaw iis. Seeley and Hulke adopt the name 

 Ornithopsis, and support Cope's view of their nature. '^ RatitcB. 



