20 JOURNAL A'^D PROCEEDINGS 



flying reptiles, were strange bat-like creatnres with extremely large 

 heads and the outermost toe of each forefoot greatly prolonged and 

 supported by a membrane by which it could fly. Their bones were 

 hollow and filled with air like those of birds. Deinosaurs — huge 

 ostrich-like reptiles, some 25 feet long — seem to liave walked on 

 their massive hind legs along the margin of shallow seas. One 

 form of deinosaurs — ceteosaurus — may have been some fifty feet 

 from snout to tip of tail, stood some ten feet high, and fed on vege- 

 tation along rivers and lagoons. Remains of some more gigantic 

 still have been found, the imprints of whose feet measure about a 

 square yard in area. The largest of these monsters — and so far as 

 known, the most colossal animal that ever walked the earth — was 

 the atlantasaurus, believed to have been not much less than 100 

 feet in length and 30 feet or more in height. 



Another marked feature of this period : It contained the 

 earliest known birds, differing much from common birds in having 

 peculiarities of structure that linked them with the reptiles. They 

 had teeth in jaws and some of them long lizard-like tails. Marsu- 

 pials made their appearance and continued to be the only represen- 

 ta;tive of mammalia during this period. Where found : Few meso- 

 zoic rocks are found in Canada. The continent during this period 

 was likely elevated above sea-level and so erosion rather than de- 

 position was going on. 



Cretaceous: Received its name from the ciialk cliffs of Eng- 

 land, and is of marine origin like limestone. Flora passes from 

 ferns, conifers and cycads to ancestors of our common trees and 

 flowering plants. The earliest dicotyledons — species of maple^ 

 alder, poplar, oak, walnut, beech and others, also species of pine. 

 This flora extended as far north as Greenland, from which nearly 

 200 species have been obtained. The climate must have been much 

 warmer than now. Foraminifer numerous in "cretaceous limestone 

 rocks. Plentiful in the white chalk of England, and still lives in 

 enormous numbers in the Atlantic Ocean, forming at the bottom a 

 grey ooze not unlike chalk. Sponges lived in great numbers, and 

 sea-urchins were numerous. The fishes of the cretaceous period in- 

 clude the earliest known representative of our herring, salmon, and 



