THE DINOSAURS 83 



of mammals which was just springing into being when 

 the huge Dinosaurs were in the heyday of their exist- 

 ence. 



And it does seem as if in the dim and distant past, as 

 in the present, brains were a potent factor in the struggle 

 for supremacy ; for, though these reptiles were giants in 

 size, dominating the earth through mere brute force, 

 they were dwarfs in intellect. 



The smallest human brain that is thought to be 

 compatible with lif.e itself weighs a little over ten ounces, 

 the smallest that can exist with reasoning powers is 

 two pounds; this in a creature weighing from 120 to 

 150 pounds. 



What do we find among Dinosaurs? Trachodon, 

 which may have walked where Baltimore now stands, 

 was twenty-five feet in length and stood a dozen feet 

 high in his bare feet, had a brain smaller than a man's 

 clenched fist, weighing less than one pound. 



Brontosaurus, in some respects the biggest brute that 

 ever walked, was but little better off, and Triceratops, 

 and his relatives, creatures having twice the bulk of an 

 elephant, weighing probably over ten tons, possessed a 

 brain weighing not over two pounds! 



How much of what we term intelligence could such a 

 creature possess — what was the extent of its reasoning 

 powers? Judging from our own standpoint and the 

 small account of intellect apparent in some humans with 

 much larger brains, these big reptiles must have known 

 just about enough to have eaten when they were hungry, 

 anything more was superfluous. 



However, intelligence is one thing, life another, and 

 the spinal cord, with its • supply of nerve-substance, 

 doubtless looked after the mere mechanical functions of 

 life; and while even the spinal cord is in many cases 



