JURASSIC DINOSAURS 207 



published. From the preliminary accounts which have appeared it seems 

 that some at least of this material may be referable to the Brachiosauridce 

 of Eiggs. At all events this is the inference the writer draws from pub- 

 lished accounts of a very long humerus concerning which much has been 

 written in German periodicals. 



Tlie writer will not enter on the discussion which has been going on in 

 reference to the attitude which has been given to certain restorations of 

 the Jurassic dinosaurs both in the old world and in the new, except to 

 say that he is himself more than ever confirmed in the opinion that the 

 crocodilian attitude involves anatomical impossibilities and would be 

 most unnatural to the Sauropoda. He desires in this connection to call 

 attention to the fact that wherever skeletons of sauropods have been found 

 with the limbs articulated and in position the animal to which they be- 

 longed has l)een discovered lying on its side, in the attitude assumed by 

 long-limbed mammals when lying down to die. We have scores of speci- 

 mens of fossil Crocodilia preserved with their limbs extended and their 

 dorsal vertebrae with the spines pointing vertically upward, but the writer 

 does not believe that in a single instance a sauropod dinosaur has been 

 found in such an attitude, which goes to confirm, in his judgment, the cor- 

 rectness of the opinions hitherto advanced almost without exception by 

 American and European paleontologists, that these animals were capable 

 of walking with the body free from the ground and that they did not 

 crawl. 



There has been some discussion as to the life-habits and mode of nutri- 

 tion of the sauropod dinosaurs, and one or two writers have contended 

 that they were not herbivorous, but that they may have been piscivorous 

 or may have fed on moUusca. There does not appear, however, to be 

 much to su])port this theory. Had these animals fed extensively on mol- 

 lusca, it is probable that within the region of the abdominal cavity the 

 remains of shells of ingested mollusca would have been found. In several 

 cases gastroliths have 1)een discovered, l)ut up to the present time there 

 is no evidence that these creatures fed on shell-fish. 



In conclusion, it may l)e said that the field of exploration is still vast 

 and much remains to be discovered as to these extinct forms. The work 

 is expensive, but it is hoped that the generosity of the friends of science 

 will prove equal to the requirements of the case, and that ultimately, as 

 the result of progressive discoveries, we may come to know much more 

 than has as yet been ascertained in reference to the Dinosauria of the 

 Jurassic formations. 



