Primordial Monsters

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 7250, 1 September 1933, Page 3

Primordial Monsters

GIANT, HIDEOUS CREATURES. ANCESTORS OF ELEPHANTS AND LIZARDS. Huge :and hideous creatures once existed on earth—fortunately before evolution had arrived at the point at which man appeared. What would our feelings be if, when taking a quite stroll on the margin of a large lake or river, we were suddenly confronted by a lizard 60ft in length and probably weighing more than 20 tions? Such were tho dimensions of the brontosarus, ono of the giants formerly living in what is now known as North America. Its hind legs were elephantine in proportion, but the forelegs were much smaller. The long, slender neck, which occupied about a quarter of the total length of the creature terminated in a snake-like head, which was absurdly small when compared with the body. Its footprint wa3 a square yard in extent! It apparently lived in marshes and pwampy places, where it fed upon aquatic plants. The extremely small size of the brain and'tho slenderness of the spinal cord suggest that it was somewhat stupid. Size does not in many cases furnish any clue to the character of these monsters. The comparatively smaller ones were often the most vicious, while some of the largest seem to have been particularly quite—almost docile. South America, in the days of old, possessed a gagantie creature in tho shape of the ground sloth, or megtherium, a cast of the skeleton of which many be seen in the British Museum in the act of grasping the- trunk of a tree. Tho creature was about 18ft in length. Many of its bones wore much more massive than those of tho elephant, the thigh bone . being, nearly three times as thick. The limbs were of tremendous strength, and the feet were armed with powerful claws. As in the case of the ant-eater it apparently walked with its toes doubled in. A still more awful-looking creature, though- apparently harmless,- was the stegosaurus, which was about 25ft long. Fragments of the remains of one were found, years ago in a brickfield at Swindon, in Wiltshire. It was a lizardlike creature, bearing a series of huge bony -plates from two to' three feet in diameter, with sharp spines, some of which were over two feet long. Its hind limbs were longer than an average man, though the forelegs were much shorter. The body appears to have been so much arched that when the reptile walked its head and tail were close to the ground, while the central plates upon the back stood more than 15ft high. Its teeth were small and weak, It evidently fed upon soft plants.