52 
EXTINCT MONSTERS 
Arbroatli paving-stone. The quarrymen, in the course of their 
work, came upon and dug out large pieces of the fossilised 
remains of this creature. Its hard coat of jointed armour bore 
on its surface curious wavy markings that suggested to their 
minds the sculptured feathers on the wings of cherubs — of all 
subjects of the chisel the most common. Hence they christened 
these remains Seraphim.” They did not succeed in getting 
complete specimens that could be pieced together; and the part 
to which this fanciful name was given turned out to be part of the 
under side below the mouth. It was composed of several large 
plates, two of which are not unlike the wings of a cherub in 
shape. Hugh Miller says in his classic work. The Old Red Sand- 
stone — ‘'the form altogether, from its wing-like appearance, its 
feathery markings, and its angular points, will suggest to the 
reader the origin of the name given it by Forfarshire work- 
men. 
A correct restoration, in proportion to the fragments found in 
the Lower Old Eed Sandstone, would give a creature measuring 
nearly six feet in length, and more than a foot across. Pterygotus 
anglicus may therefore be justly considered a monster crustacean. 
The illustrious Cuvier, who, in the eighteenth century, founded 
the science of comparative anatomy (see p. 5), astonished the 
scientific world by his bold interpretations of fossil bones. From 
a few of the chief bones he could restore the skeleton of an entire 
animal, and determine its habits and mode of living. When 
other wise men were unable to read the writing of Nature on the 
walls of her museum — in the shape of fossil bones — he came 
forward, like a second Daniel, to interpret the signs, and so in- 
structed us how to restore the world’s lost creations. Hugh 
Miller submitted the fragments found at Balruddery to the cele- 
brated naturalist Agassiz, a pupil of Cuvier, who had written a 
f- 
f = 
