1 174 



CLASS REPTILIA. 



limbs alone was hardly possible. The head was remarkably small. The 

 neck was long, and, considering its proportions, flexible ; and was the 

 lightest portion of the vertebral column. The body was quite short, and 

 the abdominal cavity of moderate size. . . . Each footprint must have 

 been about a square yard in extent. The tail was large, and nearly all 

 the bones were 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. . . . The very small head and brain, 

 and slender neural cord, indicate a stupid, slow-moving reptile. The 

 beast was wholly without offensive or defensive weapons, or dermal 

 armature. 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 had evidently 

 become mired." 



Of still more stupendous bulk is Atlantosaurus immanis, the femur 

 of which has the enormous length of six feet two inches, and thus 



Fig. 1075. — Inner (a), outer (b), and profile (c) views of a tooth of Hoplosaurus armatus; 

 from the Wealden of the Isle of Wight. (After Wright.) 



indicates one of the largest land animals yet known ; the only form 

 which could possibly have exceeded it being the Cretaceous Tricer- 

 atops mentioned above. It is by no means clear that all these 



