THE OVERLAND EOUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 



53 



1 



similar to the one represented in Plate Y, C (p. 21), were common, 

 and the birds were so much like the reptiles that their remains can 

 scarcely be distinguished. 



or plated lizard, so named because of the 

 bony plates and spinea with which its 

 back was adorned. (See PI. X,^.) Some 

 of these plates, although very thin, were 

 from 2 to 3 feet in diameter. They were 

 held u\ upright position iu two parallel 

 rows on each side of the middle region of 

 the back, extending from the base of the 

 BkiiU well down on the tall, the tip of 



ma}^ not have required other means of pro- 

 tection. Some pa^A^e protection, through 

 repulsive ngliness or otherwise, seems to 

 have been necessary, for its ludicrously 

 diminutive brain suggests a mentality in- 

 sufficient for conscious efforts at self- 

 preservation. The w^ant of brain capacity 

 was compensated to some extent by an 

 enlargement of the spinal cord near the 



FiGimE 9.— Leg bones of a dinosaur, showing size in comparison with that of a man 



Wl 



bony spines. In some indmduala tlie^ 

 spines were over 3 fee t in length. All the 

 plates and spines during life were covered 

 by a thick, homy skin. The stegosaurs 

 were about 20 feet long and stood about 

 10 feet high at the hips. The head was 

 extremely small and lizard-like in shape, 

 with a small brain, large eyes, and nos- 

 trils that indicate a considerable power of 

 smell. The great disproportion in length 

 between the fore and hind legs, the small 

 pointed head, and the skin ornaments of 

 plates and spines, made it so ugly that it 



un 



o 



the brain. 



The life of these peaceable plant-feed- 

 ing animals, however, was not always 

 serene, for there lived at the same time 

 dinosaurs whose powerful jaws armed with 

 long, sharp teeth indicate that their food 

 was flesh. These animals are called allo- 

 saurs. (SeePl.X,5.) That they fed upon 



sm 



their kind is indicated by the discovery 

 of teeth of the carnivorous species to- 

 gether ^vith the bones of their herbivorous 



Ltempo 



keleton of one 



