174 



DINOSAURS OF NORTH AMERICA. 



The head was remarkably small. The neck was long and flexible, 

 and, considering its proportions, was the lightest portion of the verte- 

 bral column. The body was short, and the abdominal cavity of mod- 

 erate size. The legs and feet were massive and the bones all solid. 

 The feet were plantigrade, and each footprint must have been about a 

 square yard in extent. The tail was large and nearly all the bones 

 are solid. 



The diminutive head will first attract attention, as it is smaller in 

 proportion to the body than in any vertebrate hitherto known. The 

 entire skull is less in diameter or actual weight than the fourth or fifth 

 cervical vertebra. 



A careful estimate of the size of Brontosaurus, as here restored, 

 shows that when living the animal must have weighed more than 

 20 tons. The very small head and brain, and the slender neural cord, 

 indicate a stupid, slow-moving reptile. The beast was.wholly without 

 offensive or defensive weapons or dermal armature. 



21 



23 



Fig. 21. — Terminal phalanx of Brontosaurus cxcclsus; outer view. 



Fig. 22. — The same bone; front view. 



Fig. 23.— The same; inner view. 



All the figures are one-fourth natural size. 



In habits Brontosaurus was more or less amphibious, and its food 

 was probably aquatic plants or other succulent vegetation. The 

 remains are usually found in localities where the animals seem to 

 have been mired. The type specimen was discovered by W. H. Beed, 

 near Lake Como, Wyoming. 



BAROSATJRUS. 



Another genus of the Sauropoda is indicated by various remains of 

 a gigantic reptile described in 1890 by the writer. The most charac- 

 teristic portions examined are the caudal vertebrae, which in general 

 form resemble those of Diplodocus. They are concave below, as in the 

 caudals of that genus, but the sides of the centra are also deeply 

 excavated. 



In the anterior caudals this excavation extends nearly or quite 



