C. Schuchert — Dinosaurs of East Africa. 37 



larger and thicker bones, mainly those of the limbs, all of 

 which are much broken and water worn. However, parts of 

 many individuals do occur singly, but the bones usually lie all 

 in a jumble. Yery rarely do the skeletons occur undisturbed 

 and connected, and no complete single skeleton has as yet been 

 found after three years of work. Most of the isolated skeletons 

 consist of leg bones, a foot, part of a vertebral column, a 

 shoulder blade, and so on. Some of the bones also show teeth 

 marks of carnivorous dinosaurs or other flesh-eaters. From 

 these it appears that the skeletons have been torn apart by 

 carnivorous animals and by the action of running water. 



Skulls are exceedingly rare and only two fair ones were 

 secured, but dismembered parts pertaining to the largest dino- 

 saurs are not so rare. Teeth are common and in line preserva- 

 tion and great variety. 



It is the ambition of the Berlin Museum to set up at least 

 one skeleton of Gigantosaurus and parts of as many others as 

 are necessary to show the variety, size, and structure of the 

 East African dinosaur assemblage. The largest African ani- 

 mals of that time were truly gigantic in size, exceeding by far 

 the mightiest of American Comanchian dinosaurs. It is 

 thought that the largest attained almost twice the length of 

 Diplodocus, which is 80 feet long. The neck appears to have 

 been at least 15 feet longer than that of Diplodocus and a good 

 deal thicker, as the vertebrae of Gigantosaurus are nearly 

 twice as high as in the American genus. Truly they were the 

 " largest of all known land animals " and " it is very difficult to 

 picture to ourselves the enormous size of such living masses" 

 (51). 



Doctor Hennig speculates much as to how these animals 

 came to be entrapped and buried in the sediments. The fol- 

 lowing is suggested by him as the most plausible explanation : 



" We can accordingly assume that a very shallow sea flooded 

 vast areas of marsh land, and at times of ebb the dinosaurs 

 wandered far out over these flats to feed on algge, sea-weed and 

 small marine animals, only to be caught in low places by the 

 incoming tides and so drowned and eventually buried. In 

 some cases feet were found standing upright, leading to the 

 conclusion that the animal had become mired in the mud. 

 Because of the very small size of the brain, we may ascribe to 

 them a low mentality and consequently frequent recurrences 

 of the accidental drownings. We may also assume that the 

 flesh-eating animals of the water as well as of the land fed on 

 these cadavers. This explanation, of course, does not readily 

 apply to. the gigantic forms since they could easily have waded 

 out of the flooding waters, but they may have lost their sense 



