26 THE COLLECTION OF FOSSIL VERTEBRATES 



which these have been selected. The pillar cards and general 

 labels in the cases give detailed information about each group 

 of fossils. One of the cases in the center of the middle aisle 

 illustrates the method by which the fossils are collected and con- 

 veyed to the Museum. The charts at each side of the entrance 

 show the order in which the rock-strata lie, one over another, 

 and the kinds of fossils found in each stratum. 



EAST WING. HALL NO. 407. FOSSIL REPTILES, ETC. 



This hall forms an introduction to an earlier world, the Age 

 of Reptiles. These fossils are of strange and unfamiliar out- 

 lines, quite unlike ordinary quadrupeds ; they represent an era, 

 long since passed away, when reptiles were the ' ' lords of crea- 

 tion." Chief among them were the Dinosaurs, great land and 

 amphibious reptiles to which the greater part of this hall is 

 devoted. They occupy the north, east and west sides and the 

 center. 



The Amphibious Dinosaurs, on the west and north sides 

 and in the center of the hall, were the largest of land animals, 

 Amphibious some of them sixty to seventy feet in length, and of 

 Dinosaurs, enormous bulk. They were quadrupedal beasts, with 

 long necks and long tails, and comparatively long and very 

 massive limbs. The head was very small in proportion to 

 the size of the animal, and the brain inferior to that of modern 

 reptiles. They were cold-blooded, slow-moving, unintelligent 

 creatures, vast storehouses of flesh which lived and grew to huge 

 size with but little occasion for very active exertion amidst the 

 rich vegetation of the moist and tropical climate of the reptilian 

 era. Several incomplete skeletons of Amphibious Dinosaurs are 

 exhibited, besides limbs and other separate parts. The Bronto- 

 saurus skeletons in Case 1 (on the right-hand or south side of the 

 entrance) and in the center of the hall are among the largest. 

 The thigh bone in this animal was nearly six feet long and 

 weighs in its petrified state 500 to 600 pounds. The Diplodociis 

 (Case 2 on the left-hand or north side of the entrance) was less 

 robust but almost as long. This specimen lacks the fore part of 

 the skeleton and most of the limbs, but the tail is very perfectly 



