4 
DRAGONS OF THE PRIME. 
Jan., 1892 
bind limbs as to be useless for walking, and there is every 
indication that the body instead of being horizontal like that 
of most reptiles was semi-erect like that of birds, and that 
the Dinosaurs walked or hopped on their hind legs as birds 
do. Among the Dinosaurs, then, we find all stages from the 
ordinary reptilian mode of progression and position of the 
body up to those characteristic of birds. Some of these 
stages I now propose to trace. 
The most reptilian of the Dinosaurs (Fig. 1) progressed on 
all fours as the crocodile does, but differed from the latter in the 
fact that the front limbs were slightly shorter than the hinder. 
These Dinosaurs, however, moved with the body horizontal, 
and in accordance with this position the pubis and ischium 
are placed as in the crocodile, for the muscles attached to 
them and to the hind limbs have no great work to perform in 
keeping the body suspended. These particular Dinosaurs, 
too, were plantigrade, as the crocodile is, i.e ., they walked on 
the soles of their feet. Like the crocodile, too, they had five 
fingers and five toes. Again, the bones of the limbs were 
solid, but in some of the most enormous of these creatures 
the pre-caudal vertebra, which are very large, have cavities in 
the bone filled with air: owing to their size, these vertebrae 
would have been very heavy had the bone of which they are 
composed been solid throughout; as it is, their weight is 
considerably reduced. 
The proportions of some of these Dinosaurs may be judged 
from the size of the bones which are preserved in the Oxford 
University Museum ; they belong to Ceteosaurus, “ the lizard,” 
that is, “ as bigas a whale.” The vertebrae of this creature 
are 9in. across, and are as big as those of a fossil elephant 
14ft. high. 
The other bones of Ceteosaurus correspond closely in size 
to similar bones in the fossil elephant which I have 
mentioned :— 
Ceteosaurus. Elephant. 
Humerus . 51 in. . 53in. 
Radius .. 38 . 39 
From these similarities of dimensions, it might seem at 
first sight as if the reptile were as high as the elephant, but, 
since the legs of an elephant are almost straight, whilst those 
of a lizard are bent, it is more probable that Ceteosaurus 
was about ten feet in height; its head was seven or eight 
feet long ; its total length fifty feet. 
This huge lizard was a marsh-loving animal, and dwelt 
by the sides of rivers, in a land thickly covered with ferns, 
cycads, and coniferous trees, and from the nature of his teeth 
