The Project Gutenberg eBook of Animals of ancient lands
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States,
you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located
before using this eBook.
Title: Animals of ancient lands
Author: Carroll Lane Fenton
Editor: E. Haldeman-Julius
Release date: June 16, 2026 [eBook #78879]
Language: English
Original publication: Girard: Haldeman-Julius Company, 1922
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78879
Credits: Tim Miller, Sam Lamb and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ANIMALS OF ANCIENT LANDS ***
TEN CENT POCKET SERIES NO. 274
Edited by E. Haldeman-Julius
Animals of Ancient
Lands
Carroll Lane Fenton
Author of “Animals of Ancient Seas,”
“The Building of the Earth,”
“A History of Evolution,” Etc.
HALDEMAN-JULIUS COMPANY
GIRARD, KANSAS
Copyright, 1922,
Haldeman-Julius Company.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Page
Fig. 1 8
Fig. 2 10
Plate I. 12
Plate II. 13
Plate III. 17
Plate IV. 24
Plate V. 26
Plate VI. 29
Plate VII. 32
Plate VIII. 36
Plate IX. 39
Plate X. 45
Plate XI. 47
Plate XII. 63
INTRODUCTION.
This volume of the evolution series of the pocket library is, like its
predecessors, an expansion of a lecture which the author has frequently
given before popular audiences. It differs from its immediate
predecessor in that it is more loosely planned, and less obviously
designed to instruct. Geologic tables and explanations have been
omitted entirely; these the reader can secure from the volume in this
Series (No. 47) entitled “Animals of Ancient Seas,” while something
about fossils and their origin is given in the first chapter of “The
Building of the Earth.” (No. 275.)
The lecturer is more fortunate than the writer in that his
illustrations are more numerous; indeed, a good stereopticon lecture
need be little more than a collection of beautiful and accurate slides
interestingly described. However, the publishers have been generous
in the number of illustrations used in these booklets, so that the
difficulty is in a measure overcome.
It remains for me to acknowledge my indebtedness to the various
authors and articles mentioned in the text and in notes. Dr. Lucas’
excellent and interesting book, “Animals of the Past,” has afforded in
a concise form much information that otherwise could have come only
from scattered technical papers. The article by Dr. Case has furnished
the base for the entire first chapter, much of the material being
reproduced with but the slightest changes in wording and arrangement,
with the omission of some technical data. Professor Case’s position as
our principal authority on Permian vertebrates gives this chapter a
reliability that could not be achieved by a second-hand re-writing of
material from his larger and more detailed monographs.
C. L. F.
CHAPTER I.
THE FIRST LAND DWELLERS.
In the first book of this series, “Animals of Ancient Seas,” (No.
47) we followed the evolution of animal life from the most primitive
one-celled creatures to the fishes, and from the most primitive
fishes to those which possessed lung-like organs that enabled them
to breathe from air as well as water. The next stage in evolution
was the development of feet and legs from the fish fin, and this was
accomplished before the end of that geologic period known as the
Devonian, or more commonly, as the “Age of Fishes.” True, no actual
remains have been found, but one fortunate collector succeeded in
getting out a fossil footprint, which is all that is needed to prove
the case. This footprint was made by an animal that looked much like
the mud puppy, or salamander, of modern streams and lakes, and was
related also to the frogs and toads. Like these creatures, he spent the
early part of his life in water, breathing with gills, and possessing
a more or less fish-like form, while in his maturity he lived at
least partly on land, and breathed by means of lungs. This type of
development, almost universal among his class, has gained for them the
name of Amphibians, or “double livers.”
During those periods which are correctly known as the Mississippian
and Pennsylvanian, but which are more commonly grouped under the one
name Carboniferous, the amphibians increased in variety, and gave
rise to a new and immensely important group of animals, the Reptiles.
Since everyone knows the general characters of this group, we shall
not take the trouble to define them. The important thing about them,
so far as evolution is concerned is that they are capable of living
on land throughout their whole lives, not even the eggs having to be
deposited in water. This, as can readily be seen, is a very fundamental
character, for as long as animals were confined to water during their
earliest stages, great progress was quite impossible. Imagine what a
state humanity would be in if every child had to begin life in some
brook, lake, or pond, and could not emerge from the water until it was
fifteen to twenty years old!
Unfortunately for our knowledge of life in the past, fossils of both
amphibians and reptiles are by no means common in the Carboniferous
systems. It was not until the times of coal deposition were almost
past, and great mountains and broad plains were taking the place of
shallow seas and sombre swamps, that land dwelling animals became
really abundant. This appearance of dry land was not only the cause of
the development of the wonderful array of animals that inhabited the
Permian world, but also the reason why so few of them are preserved
as fossils, for it is only when the bones of animals become buried in
water-soaked layers of sediment, or covered by water, that they are
readily petrified. An animal that dies and remains exposed to the
open air stands very little chance of becoming a fossil; its bones are
gnawed by carrion feeders, worn by the wind, and broken up by decay.
Thus of the hundreds of thousands, even millions, of buffalo, cattle,
antelope, and elk whose carcasses have dotted the plains of this
continent in the past half century there remain but a few rotten and
frost-split horns and bones. Without question there are, in the muddy
banks and bars of rivers, skeletons and parts of skeletons that are
undergoing the slow process of petrification, and that will be dug up
and treasured in the museums of some future civilization. And just as
the record of animal life of today will be but a fragment of that which
actually exists, so the record of the great land fauna of the Permian
period is but the merest trace of the myriad creatures of that time. It
is only in the most exceptional places that great quantities of bones
were brought together under conditions favorable to fossilization, and
such a district is found in northern Texas.
“When the Appalachian Mountains were raised, an extension of their
southern end reached across what are now Arkansas and Oklahoma,
terminating in the Wichita Mountains.... North of this range rose a
broad upland, reaching from the Rockies to the Appalachians and to
the Canadian line on the north; south of the mountains a shallow sea
reached nearly to their base, and some great rivers from the mountains
and uplands poured their flood waters into the sea and built up a
great delta. The remains of animals which haunted the banks of the
rivers were swept into them in time of flood and carried out to be
deposited in the delta, which covered most of what is now Wichita,
Archer, Wilbarger counties in the State of Texas. Naturally, most
of the remains which found their way into the streams were already
fragmentary, as they had rotted on the banks, and had been torn by
predatory animals, but in their course to the sea they were still
further disintegrated so that, rolled by the waters and beaten by
the waves, they sank to their burial as little more than water-worn
fragments; ends of limb bones, isolated vertebrae, and broken skulls,
which do little more than tantalize the student with the hints of new
forms and new relationships that can not be verified. In some places
these water-worn fragments are so thick upon the ground that they
literally can be shoveled up by the wagon load. In some instances
the bodies of animals found their way unharmed into the water and,
distended by the gases of decomposition, floated far and uninjured
until they came to rest on some mud flat beyond the reach of sharks
or other predatory animals. Such skeletons are preserved entire with
most remarkable perfection, but they are exceedingly rare, and it is
a fortunate collector who turns up even one in the course of a whole
season of search.”[1]
[Illustration: FIG. 1
Cacops, a remarkable Permian amphibian.]
Among the most remarkable of the animals found in the stratified rocks
of this ancient delta are the amphibians. During the preceding ages,
as we have seen, they were the masters of the continental world--the
largest and most progressive of land dwellers. But by the time of
the Permian they were on the downward road which was to lead them,
not to extinction, but to the obscure positions of toads, frogs
and salamanders. But this decline did not come at once, and with
overwhelming completeness; the early amphibians did not yield tamely to
the fate of old age. During the Permian, and the succeeding age, the
Triassic, there lived some of the largest and strangest amphibians that
the world has known. Some of them returned to the water and developed
eel-like bodies with enormous, arrow-like heads; some lived in trees,
where their remains have been found by geologists studying coal
deposits; others protected themselves by armor and crawled about more
or less unmolested, while not a few even went so far as to take refuge
in the ground.
The giant among all amphibians was Eryops, of the Permian, with a
length of about eight feet. He looked somewhat like an immensely
overgrown salamander with flabby sprawling legs that were incapable of
lifting his body from the ground except by the greatest effort. His
skull was from two to two and a half feet in length, and looked like
that of a gigantic frog, the jaws were equipped with sharp, cone-shaped
teeth and sharp, powerful tusks. Evidently Eryops held about the same
position in Permian swamps of Texas as the alligator does in the
Georgia bayous of today, lying near the surface of the water with only
its eyes and nostrils exposed until the approach of a victim stirred it
to movement.
Sharply contrasted with the giant Eryops, and doubtless often its
victim, was the unique Diplocaulus. The head of this amphibian was
the form of a rather angular crescent, with strong spines directed to
the rear, and protected by heavy armor. The eyes and nostrils were
directed straight upward, and situated at the forward end of the skull.
The body, remarkably enough, was long, thin, and eel-like, with only
rudimentary limb bones, and delicate ribs. Probably the animal spent
its entire life in the water, wriggling along and pushing its enormous
head before it along the slimy bottom. Perhaps, when attacked from
above, Diplocaulus was thrown into a frenzy of energy that lifted his
heavy, armored head above the bottom, and thrashed it about in the
water, but anything like swimming must have been quite beyond his power.
[Illustration: FIG. 2
Diplocaulus, the most bizarre amphibian known.]
But, bizarre though the amphibians of this Permian deposit are, they
are exceeded by the reptiles. These creatures, as we have seen, made
their appearance in the Pennsylvanian, or late “Carboniferous,” and
already, in the very beginning of their history, they showed an
astonishing diversity of form and habit. There were reptiles that
lived in the water, and reptiles that lived on dry land; reptiles that
ate flesh, reptiles that ate plants, and reptiles that ate both. Some
of them were extremely primitive, closely resembling their amphibian
ancestors, while others were like nothing that has lived either before
or since.
The simplest of the flesh-eating reptiles were aquatic, living in the
waters of swamps and rivers, and perhaps even in the sea. Their bodies
and tails were long and slender; their teeth were simple, cone-shaped
affairs of almost equal size throughout the entire length of the jaw.
Such a dentition indicates that the reptiles possessing it preyed upon
small animals which they did not have to tear to pieces; they merely
seized their food and swallowed it, leaving the entire process of
digestion to the internal organs, just as do the snakes of today. The
upper portions--called dorsal spines--of the backbones in these forms
were short, as they are in most lizards, and did not project through
the skin.
In other, and somewhat higher reptiles, the teeth appear to be
differentiated, those at the forward ends of both jaws being enlarged
to form tusks, while the posterior ones are flattened, so that cutting
edges are developed that would cut the prey and assist materially in
its capture. In some of these same forms the dorsal spines of the
backbones are very high, and project above the back as does the fin of
a fish.
In Dimetrodon, the last of the series of spiny backed, carnivorous
reptiles, these characters reached their culmination. The incisor and
canine tusks attained an enormous length and strength, projecting
from the jaws as much as three inches. The notch back of the incisors
is large and deep, and the posterior teeth of both jaws are recurved
and have sharp, serrated edges so that they must have had all of the
cutting power of a Malay knife or _kris_. A more effective set of
weapons for the cruel business of capturing prey and holding it despite
its desperate, agonized struggles hardly could be conceived. At the
same time, the spines on the back developed to an enormous length,
and in some species tapered with the delicacy of a whip lash. The tail
was short and strong, and the feet armed with well-developed claws,
all of which go to show that the animal was purely land dwelling in
habit. Dimetrodon reached lengths of more than eight feet, and was by
all odds the largest and most powerful creature of his day. We can
imagine him crouching in the bushes or tall grasses by the side of some
stream, watching for other reptiles that come to quench their thirst,
and making a fierce, scuttling rush upon his prey. Most often, perhaps,
this was another reptile, but the ponderous, slow-moving amphibians
also must have suffered from the attack of the powerful Dimetrodon.
There is ample evidence that these animals often waged fierce battles
among themselves, for it is common to find bones which have been broken
during life and healed again, telling of furious reptilian contests
for mates or territory, or perhaps with the single brute idea of a
cannibalistic meal.
[Illustration: PLATE I.
Restoration of Dimetrodon, the largest animal of the Permian lands.]
[Illustration: PLATE II.
Naosaurus (Edaphosaurus), the profusely spined mud-grubber. (After
Case.)]
But a more wonderful animal still has left its remains among the rocks
of this delta. Like Dimetrodon, it possessed high spines on the back,
but instead of being simple and tapering, they were furnished with
projecting processes on either side, much like the yard arms of old
fashioned sailing ships. This resemblance led Cope, a pioneer American
paleontologist, to call the animal Naosaurus, or “Ship Lizard.” But in
spite of his fierce appearance, Naosaurus was totally unlike Dimetrodon
in habit, being a peaceful, sluggish eater of shellfish, and perhaps
of plants. This animal probably has the most remarkable dentition of
any creature known. The incisor teeth are chisel-like, as though
useful in cutting strong, coarse vegetation; behind them are five
triangular teeth not unlike those of such flesh-eaters as the lion
and tiger; behind these are simple cones, like those of the primitive
lizards. But, most wonderful of all, on both the palate and the
corresponding portion of the lower jaw are heavy plates of bone covered
by short, stumpy teeth, such as occur in the jaws of those fish which
live upon shellfish. Seemingly, therefore, the animal ate all sorts of
food, but instead of having a generalized pattern of teeth like the pig
or man, it possessed a separate set for each type of diet.
The discovery that Naosaurus was an eater of plants and molluscs, and
not a predatory form, makes more perplexing than ever the question as
to the use of the spines on the back. On such a thick-bodied, sluggish
mud-grubber the cross-barred spines must have had about the same value
as an ornamental frieze on a canal boat. What conditions of environment
could have produced similar structures on creatures of such dissimilar
habits as Dimetrodon and Naosaurus?
The structure of the animal shows that these spines were not covered by
flesh, but by a thin membrane of skin, through which the spines showed
as plainly as the rays in the fin of a fish. It is hard to conceive
of this great dorsal frill as being anything but a hindrance to both
pursuer and pursued. Cope suggested, in a spirit of fun, that these
animals were the natural precursors of the modern fin-keeled yacht,
and that when they wished to navigate the Permian waters they swam
upon their backs. Other authors have made other suggestions of about
the same note, but few have been able to make any serious contribution
on the subject. The obvious suggestion is that the spines served as
some form of protective mimicry, helping the animal to remain concealed
among the reeds which bordered the lakes or streams. But this seems
hardly necessary in an animal that was the dominant form of its time
and needed no concealment unless as an aid to lying in wait or making
an unseen approach until sufficiently near for its final rush upon
its unsuspecting prey. This last, is perhaps, a fair suggestion, but
it seems that the burden of maintaining such a weak structure must
have far outweighed any advantage of concealment. The spines were
slender and were constantly being broken in battle and by accident, and
the animal must have expended no inconsiderable amount of energy in
repairing the damaged structure.
There remains the suggestion that the spines were remnants of a
formerly useful structure, and that their mature condition was purely
due to overgrowth. It seems certain that when a structure has developed
so far as to give an animal a distinct advantage it may continue
to grow until it is a burden rather than a help. Thus the spines,
originating as a protective feature, may have given their possessors
such a decided advantage that they were almost free from attack. In
this stage they may have become over-nourished, and have continued
growing by a sort of inertia or momentum until they reached their
greatly exaggerated development.[2] Furthermore, there is a tendency,
both in plants and in animals, for a species nearing its extinction
to develop a spiny or horny habit. This we saw in the invertebrates,
among the aging Cephalopods, and it is quite conceivable that a similar
state of affair prevails among these reptiles. For Dimetrodon and
Naosaurus,[3] dominant though they were, were nearing the end of their
life cycle. In their senile aberrations they carried the development
of spines to greater and greater lengths, until, in their declining
strength they were unable to maintain their species, and so disappeared
from the earth.
[Illustration: PLATE III.
Permian vertebrates, restored by Williston and others. 1-3 are
reptiles, while 4 is an amphibian.]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Case, E. C., “A Great Permian Delta and its Vertebrate Life,” Pop.
Sci. Monthly, Dec. 1908. This quotation is somewhat paraphrased, while
the remainder of this chapter is based very largely on the article.
[2] Paraphrased from Case, Loc. Cit.
[3] A relatively recent discovery, made by Dr. Case, shows that the
name Naosaurus must be dropped, being replaced by the earlier name
Edaphosaurus. The former name, however, is the commoner, as well as the
more descriptive.
CHAPTER II.
THE DINOSAURS.
The continent of North America during that portion of the earth’s
history which we may call the Age of Reptiles would have seemed to our
eyes like another world. The present coastal outlines, mountain chains,
valleys, rivers, lakes, and plains have, with few exceptions, come
into being long since that time. During the early part[4] of the age
there were high mountains in the eastern part of the continent, which
sent strong, muddy streams flowing to the Atlantic. California, on the
other hand, was under the Pacific; the Sierra Nevada region was a great
trough, while throughout that region which is now eastern Colorado,
Utah, western Texas, and Arizona there lay a belt of broad, shallow
lakes.
The plant life of those times differed as much from that of previous
ages as from those that were to follow. The great Pennsylvanian coal
forests of lepidodendrons, sigillarias, and their allies, had almost
completely vanished from the earth. The higher lands were clothed with
cone-bearers, such as the Aurucarian pines of present day Australia.
Thick, gloomy forests of tree ferns covered the moist regions, while
great “canebrakes” of horsetail reeds whose stems reached four or five
inches in thickness bordered the bayous and marshes. Cycads, trees
which, though related to the pines and spruces, look like palms, were
abundant in the forests of this time.
During the middle portion of the Age of Reptiles conditions, both in
geography and in plant life, underwent no striking change. But in the
late Mesozoic, the Cretaceous period, there were many changes. The
Atlantic Ocean encroached on the eastern part of the continent, while
the Gulf of Mexico extended as far north as Illinois, and reached
westward over Texas. A broad mediterranean sea stretched from the Gulf
to the Arctic Ocean, and from Iowa to Utah, with the Colorado Mountains
rising from it as a chain of islands. West of the sea was a broad belt
of swamp land which extended from northern Alberta almost to Mexico.
The plants of the Cretaceous changed with the geography. The Cycads,
so abundant in the early Mesozoic, became rare in most regions. The
highest types of flowering plants gained an almost complete ascendancy,
and forests of a decidedly modern appearance covered the continent from
the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean. “Among the kinds of forest
trees whose remains are found in the continental deposits of the
Cretaceous are the magnolia, the myrtle, the laurel, the fig, the tulip
tree, the chestnut, the oak, beech, elm, poplar, willow, birch and
maple. Forests of Eucalyptus grew along the coast of New England,[5]
and palms on the Pacific shores of British Columbia. Sequoias of many
varieties ranged far into northern Canada. In northern Greenland there
were luxuriant forests of magnolias, figs, and cycads; and a similar
flora has been disinterred from the Cretaceous rocks of Alaska and
Spitsbergen. Evidently the lands within the Arctic Circle enjoyed
a warm and genial climate, as they had done during the Paleozoic.
Greenland had the temperature of Cuba and southern Florida, and the
time was yet far distant when it was to be wrapped in glacier ice.”[6]
Such were the conditions under which flourished the mightiest race of
animals that has ever lived upon land. The Dinosaurs not only were the
dominant animals of their time, but they reached sizes so great that
they have been rivalled by but one group of mammals--the whales. They
maintained their supremacy throughout a long period of time estimated
at from nine to one hundred millions of years; they survived important
changes in geography and climate, and became extinct through a
combination of causes which are yet only half known. Perhaps the great
changes in life conditions at the end of the Cretaceous had much to do
with their disappearance, as may also have been true of other reptiles
living at the same time. Not improbably, too, the rise of egg-eating
mammals, more intelligent and active than the dinosaurs, was a factor;
and last of all, there remains the ever ready and ever probable
hypothesis of racial old age.
The Dinosaurs were descended, in the opinion of those who have studied
them, from primitive, lizard-like reptiles with fairly long limbs, long
tails, five toes on each foot, and a complete series of sharp pointed
teeth. In all probability, according to Dr. W. D. Matthew,[7] this
ancestor was fully capable of living on dry land, and was more or less
in the habit of walking on its hind legs alone.
One of the most striking things about the Dinosaurs is their notable
lack of brain power. In man, a creature weighing anywhere from one
hundred twenty to two hundred pounds, on the average, the weight of a
normal brain is about three pounds. The smallest brain that can exist
and possess reasoning powers is about two pounds, while the smallest
human brain known to be fitted for life alone weighs just a little more
than ten ounces.
We can readily see that if conditions were proportionate among
the Dinosaurs the size of the brain would be almost unbelievable.
Instead, the reptile Claosaurus, which once inhabited the valleys of
Maryland, and was twenty-five feet long and more than twelve feet
high, had a brain so small that it must have weighed less than one
pound. Brachiosaurus, probably the biggest beast that ever walked,
was not much better equipped, while Triceratops, a Dinosaur having
more than twice the bulk of the average elephant, possessed a brain
weighing about two pounds. Truly they who are prone to refer to the
“brainlessness” of human beings should consider the Dinosaurs before
they speak! These great beasts must have known just about enough to
rest when they were tired and eat when they were hungry; “coming in out
of the rain” doubtless was an idea altogether too complicated for them
to grasp.
But, as Lucas and others have emphasized, intelligence is one thing and
living another and a very different one. The poor, weak brains of the
Dinosaurs doubtless had but little to do with the primary functions
of life; the spinal cord took care of them. In some of the beasts,
notably in the armored giant Stegosaurus, the spinal cord possessed
a sacral enlargement that was twenty times as large as the brain.
This remarkable fact, when announced by Professor Marsh, attracted
great attention, and was made the subject of much newspaper writing.
Thousands of people who would never recognize the name Stegosaur are
familiar with the marvelous character of that beast as he is described
in this catchy though fanciful poem:
[Illustration: PLATE IV.
The armored giant Stegosaurus.]
THE DINOSAUR.
Behold the mighty dinosaur,
Famous in prehistoric lore,
Not only for his weight and strength
But for his intellectual length.
You will observe by these remains
The creature had two sets of brains--
One in his head (the usual place),
The other at his spinal base.
Thus he could reason a priori
As well as a posteriori.
No problem bothered him a bit:
He made both head and tail of it.
So wise he was, so wise and solemn,
Each thought just filled a spinal column.
If one brain found the pressure strong
It passed a few ideas along;
If something slipt his forward mind
’Twas rescued by the one behind;
And if in error he was caught
He had a saving afterthought.
As he thought twice before he spoke
He had no judgments to revoke;
For he could think without congestion,
Upon both sides of every question.
O’ gaze upon this model beast,
Defunct ten million years at least!
The Dinosaurs, like all other groups of animals, may be divided
into sub-groups, depending on habits, structure, etc. The commonest
classification separates them into three divisions: the carnivorous,
the amphibious, and the beaked. One of the most remarkable of the
flesh-eating species, though not the largest, is Allosaurus, a powerful
reptile that once roamed over the western part of North America. He
walked by means of his hind legs only, using his long tail as a balance
for his body. The huge head, armed with long, sharp teeth, was set on
a heavy, short neck; casts of the brain indicate that it was of much
the same type as that of the modern alligator, but considerably less
effective.
[Illustration: PLATE V.
One of the greater carnivorous dinosaurs, showing the large head,
long teeth, tiny fore limbs and ponderous walking legs typical of the
group. (Modified after Lull.)
]
Allosaurus lived upon dry land, seldom venturing into the great
Mesozoic swamps. He was predaceous, attacking his prey in swift, mighty
rushes, tearing it with the jaws and occasionally striking it with the
powerful tail. Anything like the elaborate stalking of game such as we
see in the tiger and lion of today was impossible to the Dinosaur; he
simply lay in wait until the close approach of prey stimulated him to
his tremendous but half instinctive rush. The kill was torn to pieces
and swallowed without chewing, as is the case with the alligator of
today.
The amphibious Dinosaurs, which must have provided much of the food for
Allosaurus and his kin, were characterized by blunt teeth and claws,
strong, elephant-like legs and feet, long neck, and small head. They
attained very great size, some of them, as we have said, being the
largest of land animals. They may well be typified by Brontosaurus, the
Thunder Lizard, which though not the longest, was one of the largest
of his kind. The skeleton which is mounted in the American Museum
is sixty-six feet long, the animal when alive having weighed about
thirty-eight tons. The body was large and rather short; the neck long,
and the head small. The tail was long and thick, and the legs massive
and post-like. The bones of the legs were very long and heavy, the
thigh bones being from five to six feet long--the largest single bones
so far discovered. The vertebrae, or “backbones,” were as much as four
and one-half feet high, being larger than those of the whale.
The teeth and general structure of Brontosaurus give fairly reliable
evidence as to the habits of the animal. It spent its life in the
shallow water of lagoons, feeding upon the succulent water plants.
There is no evidence that it swam very much; probably its principal
mode of progression was wading, with the immense body partly supported
by the water. Perhaps the beast occasionally left the water for
the purpose of laying eggs, as is shown in Knight’s oft-printed
restoration. It appears, however, that Brontosaurus was not built for
land travel; that his joints were so imperfectly formed that he could
not have moved on land without tearing those of the leg to pieces. Dr.
Matthew thinks that the species of this genus bore their young alive,
as do certain modern reptiles, and therefore had no need to leave the
swamps and bayous at any time during their lives.
Within the last few years there have come sketchy preliminary accounts
of a mammoth find near Tendaguru, Africa, by an expedition sent out
from Germany. They announce the discovery of a Dinosaur whose neck and
fore limbs far exceeded those of Brontosaurus, although the hinder
parts of the skeleton were relatively small. It appears that this
giant, which the German savants appropriately named Gigantosaurus,
is identical with the American form Brachiosaurus, whose fragmentary
remains are on exhibit at the Field Museum of Chicago. It is,
without question the largest known Dinosaur, so far as weight goes--a
long-necked wading creature that lived much as did Brontosaurus but was
capable of going into considerably deeper waters, quite beyond reach of
the fierce carnivorous giants of the land.
[Illustration: PLATE VI.
Fig. 1--Diplodocus, the longest Dinosaur known.
Fig. 2--Brontosaurus, the giant that could not walk except in water,
because of his great weight and feeble joints.]
The distinctive character of the third group of Dinosaurs is the
possession of a horny beak or bill, much like that of modern birds.
Indeed, there are many features in the anatomy of these reptiles that
indicate their relationship to the birds, and it is probable that the
remote ancestors of the two groups were very closely connected--perhaps
identical. But the ancestral birds developed feathers and took to
flying, while the ancestral beaked Dinosaurs (Predentates) specialized
in the direction of land life, and in their later development became
even more widely diversified in form than did their feathered relatives.
The beaked Dinosaurs lived entirely upon vegetable food. The best known
of them, Triceratops or “He-of-the-three-horned-head,” looked more like
a gigantic, long-tailed rhinoceros than a reptile. Above each eye was
a long, sharp horn which extended forward; the bony cores which remain
in the fossils are as much as thirty-three inches long, and during
life the horny covering must have lengthened them by six inches to a
foot. The horn above the nose was considerably shorter, yet would have
compared favorably with that of many rhinoceroses.
“Standing before the skull of Triceratops,” says Dr. Lucas, “... one
notices in front of each eye a thick guard of projecting bone, and
while this must have interfered with vision directly ahead it must have
also furnished protection for the eye. So long as Triceratops faced an
adversary he must have been practically invulnerable, but as he was the
largest animal of his time, upward of twenty-five feet in length, it is
probable that his combats were mainly with those of his own kind and
the subject of dispute some fair female upon whom two rival suitors had
cast covetous eyes. What a sight it would have been to have seen two
of these big brutes in mortal combat as they charged upon each other
with all the impetus to be derived from ten tons of infuriate flesh!
We may picture to ourselves horn clashing upon horn, or glancing from
each bony shield until some skilful stroke or unlucky slip placed one
combatant at the mercy of the other, and he went down before the blows
of his adversary ‘as falls on Mount Alvernus a thunder-smitten oak?’”
Two Triceratops horns in the possession of the United States National
Museum bear the marks of such an encounter as that described by Dr.
Lucas, for one of them is broken about half way between the tip and the
base, and the stump is healed and rounded over. Evidently their owner
was not seriously injured in the fight, but lived to a ripe old age in
spite of his infirmity.
Triceratops had a number of relatives, at least one of which is even
more famous than himself. This is Stegosaurus, the great Armored
Dinosaur that possessed the remarkable enlargement of the spinal cord.
Like his three-horned relative, Stegosaurus was a land dweller that
walked upon four legs. His head was very small, as were his fore limbs;
his body was very large, and his tail long and powerful. Along his back
ran two rows of bony plates, some of which were four inches thick at
the base, and two and one-half feet high. The tail bore, near the tip,
two pairs of spines which were almost as long as the back plates, and
half again as thick. The hind limbs were long and straight, in marked
contrast with the front ones, so that the creature when walking must
have appeared to be in constant danger of turning a somersault.
[Illustration: PLATE VII. Triceratops, the Three Horned Reptile.]
Stegosaurus was a contemporary of Brontosaurus and the carnivorous
Allosaurus. Like the former, he was a peaceful plant feeder, but unlike
him, did not flee to the shallows in order to avoid his flesh-eating
relatives. For this great armor, although undoubtedly developed in
the interests of peace, was hardly designed with any consideration
for the Hebrew creed of turning one cheek when the other is smitten.
Stegosaurus was too brainless and to clumsy to go about seeking
trouble, but to those creatures foolhardy enough to attack him he
could offer stiff resistance. A few blows of the huge spiked tail,
more powerful than the club of the mightiest ogre of mythology, would
be quite enough for even such giants as Allosaurus. Stegosaurus, like
the rhinoceros of modern Africa, probably went his way unharming and
unharmed.
* * * * *
The Dinosaurs first appeared during the Triassic period when they
roamed through the valleys of eastern North America in great numbers,
leaving their footprints on the soft, fine mud of the valley flats.
The succeeding period, the Jurassic, was their Golden Age--the age of
Brontosaurus, Allosaurus, Stegosaurus, Diplodocus and other monsters.
During the Comanchean and Cretaceous periods the larger Dinosaurs
became extinct, and were supplanted by the smaller beaked forms,
such as Triceratops. At the end of the Cretaceous period, which was
also the end of the Age of Reptiles, the Dinosaurs became almost
totally extinct. Perhaps a few of them survived in specially favored
localities, for Dinosaur bones are found in rocks which a number of
geologists refer to the beginning of the Age of Mammals. But such
survivals were of small importance, and had little effect on the
general annihilation. The Dinosaurs were unable to meet the demands of
a dry-land environment, and joined the great hosts of creatures that at
various times have held the earth in their sway and then, defeated by
causes at which we can only guess, have passed into extinction.
FOOTNOTES:
[4] The Mesozoic Era, or Age of Reptiles, is divided into four
periods--Triassic, Jurassic, Comanchean, and Cretaceous. The first two
are here referred to as the “early” part of the age; the third as the
“middle,” and the fourth as the “late.”
[5] The Eucalyptus is now common in Australia, while the Sequoia is the
“Big Tree” of California.
[6] Norton, Elements of Geology, 1st Ed., p. 378.
[7] Dr. Matthew, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the American
Museum of Natural History, is one of the authorities on Dinosaurs. His
book, “Dinosaurs,” published by the Museum, has afforded much of the
material to be found in this chapter.
CHAPTER III.
REPTILES RE-CONQUER THE SEA.
The sea, as we have seen, was the metropolis of primitive life. Then
came the amphibia, and the scene of animal activities was partially
transferred to land, while with the coming of reptiles the abandoning
of the sea by the higher forms of life seemed to be insured. Yet the
change did not come so rapidly as one might think, for the reptiles
after having begun their conquest of the land sent not less than three
great branches back to the water, and one of these, at least, extended
its domain around the world, from the islands of the South Seas to what
are now the plains of North America.
During the latter part of the Age of Reptiles a great island sea
spread over a large part of this continent, while other portions of
the world were similarly inundated. Almost everywhere on the expanse
of the shallow Cretaceous waters might have been seen the forms of
huge, snake-like reptiles, the Elasmosaurs, whose arrow-shaped heads,
poised on long necks rose from ten to twenty feet above the surface
as they swam about searching for food or avoiding enemies. When the
prey was located, the reptiles dived to capture it; when an enemy
approached they swam away with almost incredible swiftness. Their
long necks were attached to large, thick bodies which ended in long,
tapering tails. The legs were modified to form broad paddles, of great
value in swimming; the front pair, perhaps, were used in seizing prey.
Being carnivorous, the Elasmosaur ate whatever it could catch, and
Elasmosaur bones are commonly found along with those of creatures on
which they fed. Not uncommonly large quantities of rounded pebbles
are found with the remains of these reptiles, sometimes a peck of
them in a single deposit. These stones filled the same purpose as do
the “gizzard stones” found in the stomachs of modern birds. Evidently
the Elasmosaurs and their allies did not tear or bite their food into
small bits, but relied on the action of their stomachs, assisted by
these stones, to do the work.
[Illustration: PLATE VIII. An Elasmosaur swimming, as drawn by
Williston.]
But, remarkable though these reptiles may seem, they were by no means
the rulers of the Mesozoic oceans and seas. The great Mosasaurs were
not only the giants of those waters, but were far more numerous and
wide-spread than their less hardy and prolific contemporaries.
We may quite properly call these animals great, for so they were. But
it is well to remember that among the lower animals as among men there
are degrees of greatness; moreover there is a general desire on the
part of men to magnify the animals of the past, and consider them as
being far larger than any that live today. Few people, when thinking of
ancient creatures, stop to recollect that the whales of today are by
far the largest animals that ever lived on the earth, just as modern
shellfish compare very favorably with those of past ages. True, there
are no reptiles today that compare with the largest of the Dinosaurs,
but by no means all of the Dinosaurs were giants. A few Mosasaurs
attained a length of forty feet--some even forty-five--but most of them
were less than twenty. Among modern reptiles, the Mugger, or Man-eating
Crocodile of Africa grows, if allowed to live long enough, to a length
of twenty-five or thirty feet, and therefore exceeds in measurements as
well as weight the average Mosasaur.
The Mosasaurs were elongated and gracefully fish-like in form. Their
heads were large, flattened, and conical; the eyes were placed on
the sides rather than the top of the skull. Their tails were long,
with flattened, fin-like extensions that assisted the four broad,
powerful flippers when the creatures were swimming. Like their distant
relatives, the snakes, they possessed four rows of teeth on the roof
of the mouth. These teeth were valueless for chewing, but were of
utmost service in holding the prey, which was swallowed entire. The
probability is that the tongue was long and forked, while the structure
of the throat and windpipe indicates that the mighty Mosasaur’s only
call was a serpent-like hiss.
The first Mosasaur was discovered in the quarries beneath St. Peter’s
Mount, near Maestritch, Germany, some ninety feet below the surface.
Immediately on finding the specimen the workmen informed Dr. Hoffman,
the surgeon of the local forces, and an ardent collector of fossils.
He labored with the quarrymen for two weeks, and was rewarded by an
almost perfect specimen which he took to his home and cleaned with
great care and success. The fossil was so unusual, and was made the
basis of so many papers, illustrations, and discussions, that the canon
of the cathedral which stands on St. Peter’s decided that he should
own the specimen. Dr. Hoffman refused to give it up, and Canon Goddin
instituted a long, expensive, and harassing law-suit, making certain
feudal rights the basis of his claim. The whole chapter, of course,
stood with their reverend brother, and the decree went against the
surgeon, who was forced to give up his specimen and pay the costs of
the trial. For several years the skull remained in the possession of
the clergyman, and Hoffman died without regaining it. Finally, during
the French revolution, Maestritch was bombarded and captured. During
the attack, the artillerymen had not been allowed to shoot into that
part of the city where the fossil was known to be. The canon, guessing
the reason for this particular favor, hid the skull in a vault, but was
forced to give it up when the city was plundered. The French, who did
not hesitate to appropriate anything of value in either science or art,
bore the famous Mosasaur off to Paris, and put it in the museum at the
Jardin des Planes, where it still remains.
[Illustration: PLATE IX.
A Mosasaur swimming.]
The first American Mosasaur discovery took place in 1820, at Great
Bend, Mo. Major O’Fallon, an Indian agent, found a fine specimen which
he took to his home in the town of St. Louis. A few years later the
relic was taken to Germany by Prince Maximilian of Wied, after his
famous trip through the United States in search of natural history
specimens and information. Since that time hundreds, even thousands,
of specimens have been collected and described from the Cretaceous
rocks of this country. The shallow seas that covered Kansas were the
headquarters of the Mosasaurs, and their skeletons are abundant in the
chalk cliffs of the district.
Among the fishes which were the prey of the Mosasaurs was the great
Portheus, or Bulldog fish, whose long, sharp teeth and powerful body
indicate that it often evened matters by capturing smaller mosasaurs.
The head of this monster was twice as large as that of a grizzly bear,
while the muzzle was stouter and deeper than that of a bulldog. Some
of the teeth projected as much as three inches above the gums, sinking
a full inch into the pits--as long as the fangs of a tiger, but more
slender. Two pairs of these deadly teeth crossed each other on either
side of the snout, and were re-enforced by numerous other long, conical
teeth farther back on the jaw.
Above the water soared or flew--it is not yet decided which--the great
Pterosaurs, or winged reptiles. According to the current conception,
these great beasts flew above the water, swooping down to snatch fishes
and smaller mosasaurs, on which they fed. Some of the Pterosaurs had
wing spreads of eighteen to twenty feet, and if they actually did fly,
were without doubt the largest of all denizens of the air. At night and
while resting they clung to cliffs and rocks by means of the long claws
with which their wings were equipped.
While we do not know whether or not the Mosasaurs fed upon turtles,
there were plenty from which they might have made their choice. One of
them, at least, was of gigantic size, having a flipper spread of at
least fifteen feet. The skin was smooth and leathery, that over the
back being strengthened by several ridges of stiffer integument. The
back flippers were relatively small, while the front ones were very
broad and without an armor of claws.
* * * * *
Gradually, after countless centuries of relative quiet, the earth
began to re-shape its surface. Mountains, plains, and plateaus arose,
leaving those sea-dwellers that could not swim or crawl to perish
in the hot suns of a new time. The once broad seas grew smaller and
smaller, were divided into lakes and basins, continued shrinking. The
sea-dwellers were imprisoned in these basins, where they preyed upon
each other with greater ease than had been possible in the open waters
of earlier times, while the fishes died from the constant freshening
of the water. The stronger gorged upon the weaker until they were left
stranded on the ever rising bars, with no food but their kindred,
and little strength to either attack or escape. At the last they may
have made desperate attempts to escape by land, or else lay starving
in the shallow, muddy pools. Perhaps as the waters shrank a few of
the great saurians fed with them, eventually making their way into
the new sea and ocean areas. But in all probability any such refugees
were so beaten and starved that they had but little chance for success
in life under their new environment. By the time of the great uplift
which proved their undoing, the Mosasaurs and their allies were an
old race,[8] and had little vitality left with which to cope with
new situations. They died, leaving no descendants,[9] and only the
scattered remains in Cretaceous rocks remain to tell of the once mighty
hordes.
FOOTNOTES:
[8] For a discussion of the age of groups, life cycle of species, etc.,
see the author’s booklet, “Animals of Ancient Seas,” No. 47 of this
Series.
[9] Rumors of Paleozoic monsters living in remote portions of the earth
appear constantly, but without foundation in fact. Just this year
(1922) newspapers and some magazines have made a great to-do about a
Plesiosaur that was supposed to be living in a South American lake.
The Plesiosaurs, aside from being as ancient as the Mosasaurs, were
exclusively marine; therefore, a report of one of them in a lake is
utterly absurd.
CHAPTER IV.
THE MOST ANCIENT BIRDS.
When and how the first bird came into being is one of the undiscovered
secrets of paleontology. The probability is that at some time during
the late Triassic--the first division of the Mesozoic, or “Middle Life”
era--a little reptile somewhat like the smallest of the bird-like
dinosaurs developed feathers and began to make short flights through
the air. Whether this reptile, which actually may have been a dinosaur,
developed wings on his forelegs and rose from the ground, or whether he
developed feathers on both front and hind legs and began by gliding,
is a matter of theory. Just now the latter view seems to be the more
elaborately worked out, and therefore the more widely accepted. But
there is fashion in theories just as there is in dress, and some new
discovery may easily render the supposed four-winged ancestor passe.
But, uncertain though the origin of birds may be, there is little
doubt regarding the most ancient known member of the class. It is the
famous Archeopteryx, found in the equally noted lithographic quarries
at Solenhofen, Bavaria. This ancient bird, for all practical purposes
the starting point in the history of the feathered animals,[10] was
considerably smaller than a crow, and possessed a short, strong beak
which was armed with sharp, reptile-like teeth. The wings were short
and broad, while the tail was considerably longer than the rest of the
body, and was of very remarkable construction. As everyone who has ever
shot sparrows or plucked a chicken knows, the tail of a modern bird is
made up very much like a feather fan, and closes up like one, with the
bony part very short and broad. In the Archeopteryx, however, the tail
was long and lizard-like, with the feathers placed in pairs, one pair
to each tail joint. Thus the creature when flying must have looked much
like an undersized crow dragging after him a palm leaf instead of a
tail.
As may be inferred from the foregoing description, the feathers of
Archeopteryx are well preserved in the two fossils which have been
found. However, they are shown only on certain parts of the body,
and from this some scientists have concluded that the bird possessed
feathers on only the wings, tail, and thighs. There seems, however,
to be little ground for this conclusion, and restorations of the
creature showing it as a bird-like lizard with a few tufts of feathers
are hardly to be relied upon. It is very improbable that such highly
developed feathers as those which are preserved should have been
present without the more primitive ones being found on the back,
breast, and neck. Also, since the feathers of the latter type are
smaller and more easily destroyed than those of the wings and tail,
it is quite natural that they should fail to be preserved in the old
Jurassic sediments.
[Illustration: PLATE X.
The fossil remains of Archeopteryx.]
The Archeopteryx lived during the period when the Dinosaurs were in the
height of their glory. Whether or not he was descended from any of the
birds who, without much question, left tracks in the Connecticut valley
during the preceding age cannot be determined. Doubtless those ancient
forms would hardly have been recognizable as birds, yet inasmuch as
they wore feathers they may properly be placed in that group. For
we may both concisely and accurately define birds as animals with
feathers, for feathers are possessed by every bird that lives, and are
possessed by no creatures other than birds. Flight, as we shall see in
the next chapter, is a characteristic that is by no means universal in
the bird world, but even the flightless birds, such as the ostrich and
the Apteryx, are covered with feathers. True, in the penguins, birds
that spend most of their time on and under the water, the feathers
have been changed so that they are hardly recognizable, yet a closer
examination shows the essential structure to be there, and our
definition is upheld.
[Illustration: PLATE XI.
Hesperornis swimming beneath the water.
(After Lucas.)]
The next birds of which we have relics were inhabitants of the western
part of our own country, and although separated by tens or hundreds of
thousands of years from the Jurassic Archeopteryx, they still possessed
teeth--a characteristic that separates them sharply from all modern
birds. They were first collected during the years 1870-71 by Professor
O. C. Marsh, who was at that time exploring the chalk beds of western
Kansas. It was not until 1873, however, that Marsh was able to give his
specimens a thorough laboratory examination and discovered that the
jaws were set with teeth, thus establishing a new and most important
fact in evolution.[11] Previous to this men had been quite willing
to believe that birds were descended from toothed animals, for all
the creatures from which they might have come were toothed, but not a
few hesitated to acknowledge that birds themselves possessed similar
equipment. But with Marsh’s discovery the case was proved, and “scarce
as hen’s teeth” ceased to be a joke, at least so far as fossils are
concerned.
The larger of the two species of birds found in Kansas was a truly
remarkable creature, in some ways the most astonishing bird that has
ever lived. Hesperornis (western bird) looked much like an overgrown,
wingless loon, or “hell diver,” and was quite as much at home in the
water as is that bird. Instead of swimming with the wings, as does
the penguin of Antarctic regions, Hesperornis swam with its legs and
feet, and did it so successfully that the wings disappeared, with
the exception of a single bone. At the same time, the muscles of the
breast, which are used in moving the wings, dwindled away, so that
Hesperornis, although some five feet in length, was remarkably slender
and torpedo-shaped.
Concerning its habits and probable appearance during life Dr. Lucas
says: “As a swimming bird, one that swims with its legs and not with
its wings, Hesperornis has probably never been equalled, for the size
and appearance of the bones indicate great power, while the bones of
the foot were so joined to those of the leg as to turn edgewise as the
foot was brought forward and thus offer the least possible resistance
to the water. It is a remarkable fact that the leg bones of Hesperornis
are hollow, remarkable because as a rule the bones of aquatic animals
are more or less solid, their weight being supported by the water; but
those of the great diver were almost as light as if it had dwelt upon
the dry land. That it did not dwell there is conclusively shown by
its build, and above all its feet, for the foot of a running bird is
modified in quite another way.
“The bird was probably covered with smooth, soft feathers, something
like those of an Apteryx; this we know because Professor Williston
found a specimen showing the impression of the skin of the lower part
of the leg as well as of the feathers that covered the ‘thigh’ and
head. While such a covering seems rather inadequate for a bird of such
exclusively aquatic habits as Hesperornis must have been, there is
no getting away from the facts in the case in the shape of Professor
Williston’s specimen, and we have in the Snake Bird, one of the most
aquatic of recent birds, an instance of similarly poor covering....
“The restoration which Mr. Gleeson has drawn[12] differs radically
from any yet made, and is the result of careful study of the specimen
belonging to the United States National Museum. No one can appreciate
the peculiarities of Hesperornis and its remarkable departures from
other swimming birds who has not seen the skeleton mounted in a
swimming attitude. The great length of the legs, their position at the
middle of the body, the narrowness of the body back of the hip joint,
and the disproportionate length of the outer toe are all brought out
in a manner which a picture of the bird squatting upon its haunches
fails utterly to show. As for the tail, it is evident from the size and
breadth of the bones that something of the kind was present; it is also
evident that it was not like that of an ordinary bird, and so it has
been drawn with just a suggestion of Archaeopteryx about it.
“The most extraordinary thing about Hesperornis, however, is the
position of the legs relative to the body, and this is something that
was not even suspected until the skeleton was mounted in a swimming
attitude. As anyone knows who has watched a duck swim, the usual place
for the feet and legs is beneath and in a line with the body. But in
our great extinct diver the articulations of the leg bones are such
that this is impossible, and the feet and lower joint of the legs
(called the tarsus) must have stood out nearly at right angles to
the body, like a pair of oars. This is so peculiar and anomalous an
attitude for a bird’s legs that, although apparently indicated by the
shape of the bones, it was at first thought to be due to the crushing
and consequent distortion to which the bones had been subjected, and
an endeavor was made to place the legs in the ordinary position, even
though this was done at the expense of some little dislocation of the
joints. But when the mounting of the skeleton had advanced further it
became more evident that Hesperornis was not an ordinary bird, and
that he could not have swum in the usual manner, since this would have
brought his great knee-caps up into his body, which would have been
uncomfortable. And so, at the cost of some little time and trouble, the
mountings were so changed that the legs stood out at the sides of the
body, as shown in the picture.”[13]
The birds progressed while their kindred and ancestors, the reptiles,
were declining. By the dawn of the Eocene, the first period of the Age
of Mammals, the birds were very much like those of modern times, and
in the last three million years or more very little change has taken
place. However, there were a number of bizarre and gigantic forms which
arose during the later ages of bird ascendancy, and those we shall
consider in the following chapter.
One who has observed the great abundance of birds today might well
conclude that bird remains should be among the commonest of the
vertebrate fossils. Exactly the opposite, however, is true, for bird
bones are among the rarest finds of the paleontological collector.
Bones of the wings and legs, and occasional skulls, go to make up the
bulk of the finds, with smaller bones, and impressions of the feathers
turning up just often enough to keep the collector in a constant state
of anticipation. A few eggs, also, have been found in the strata of
western United States, but as yet the birds that laid them are unknown.
The scarcity of bird fossils is a problem to which no satisfactory
answer has yet been given. The commonest theory is that dead birds,
because of their very light weight, float for long periods of time,
and are thus exposed to the attacks of weather, bacteria, and carrion
feeding birds and animals. The bones, too, are light and easily broken,
so that they will not stand the wear as will the heavier remains of
mammals and sea-dwelling shellfish. Yet, in certain formations of
France and Oregon, where conditions are not notably different from
those of other and barren strata, remains of birds are fairly common.
This proves that under proper conditions, whatever they may have been,
bird bones did fossilize--a fact which holds out the hope that some day
a fortunate collector will unearth a large and varied deposit, and will
then be able to fill out some of the greater gaps in the history of
feathered creatures.
FOOTNOTES:
[10] That is, until a more ancient specimen is discovered. One must
always be prepared for new discoveries in paleontology, just as in
other sciences.
[11] Although the first specimen of Archeopteryx had been found several
years before, it was too poorly preserved to show the teeth. It was not
until 1877 that the famous Berlin specimen, which shows the teeth and
feathers so admirably, was discovered.
[12] This restoration served as the copy for the accompanying plate.
[13] Animals of the Past, 1st Ed., pp. 83-85.
CHAPTER V.
GIANTS OF THE FEATHERED WORLD.
As we have seen in the preceding chapter, the earliest birds were both
stranger and, in some cases at least, larger than most of the species
found on earth today. But as we go upward in the geologic scale, we
find that the primitive birds were far outstripped by their relatively
modern descendants. Some of these feathered Goliaths, such as the
Ostrich of Africa, are alive today; some have but recently become
extinct, and their relics are found by thousands in the districts where
they once roamed. Still others, though probably not the largest of
their class, died out thousands, or even millions of years before man
appeared upon the earth. They, like the mighty dinosaurs that preceded
them, succumbed to the many enemies which constantly attack every
animal that lives and left the earth to their more successful rivals
and descendants.
Among the best known of the more recent avian giants, so recently
extant that it still lives in the traditions of the peoples whose
ancestors feasted upon its flesh, is the great Moa of New Zealand.
The first announcement of the existence of this remarkable bird was
made by the Rev. W. Colenso, a missionary who later became Bishop of
New Zealand. Early in the year of 1838, while on a missionary trip in
the North Island, Bishop Colenso secured from the natives of Waiapu
legends regarding a mammoth bird, called the Moa, which possessed a
human head, and which inhabited a mountain some eighty miles inland.
This creature, according to the legends, was the last of his kind, and
was carefully guarded by two gigantic lizards who stood watch while the
bird slept. When an enemy, especially a man, approached, these lizards
roused the Moa, who immediately rushed upon the intruders and trampled
them to death. It appeared that none of the savages had ever seen this
bird--due, perhaps, to its watchful guardians and fierce prowess--but
they were very sure of its existence. In fact, they used bones of his
dead relatives in making their fishing implements, and these bones,
they assured the bishop, were quite as large as those of the European
ox.
But a short time later, another missionary, the Rev. Richard Taylor,
discovered a bone which was said to belong to the Moa, and received
considerable free information about its possessor from the natives
with whom he was associated. But, as Dr. Lucas remarks in telling of
the incident, just “as the foot of the rainbow moves away as we move
toward it, in his case the bird was said to dwell in a quite different
locality from that given by the natives of East Cape” where Rev.
Colenso had secured his information. Taylor’s informants, like the
other natives, had not seen the Moa, nor did they even know anyone who
had, but they had no doubt of its existence. When after many years of
search, however, there was not a single explorer who had seen, heard,
or tracked the giant bird, scientists refused to believe the tales of
the natives, and some went so far as to deny that the Moa had lived at
any time within the era of man.
These latter, however, went somewhat too far in their questioning. For
even though no man has seen the living Moa, its remains are scattered
abundantly over the hills, valleys and swamps of New Zealand, and
from them scientists have been able to gain a very reliable idea of
the size, structure, and general appearance of the feathered giant.
Probably the most remarkable find of Moa remains was made in one of the
large, dry caves of South Island, where collectors secured not only
a number of bones with the original flesh adhering, but also several
patches of skin to which clung numerous feathers of a chestnut color
tipped with white. True, these small, rusty-brown feathers were not
very spectacular, but when we stop to consider that they have been kept
for hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of years without any preservative
whatever, and that they belonged to a race of creatures now totally
extinct, our respect for them increases greatly. Since the original
possessor of those feathers died in his New Zealand cavern many wars
have been won and lost, powerful nations have arisen, new languages
and systems of thought have been established, and the surface of the
earth has been carved, planed, and pitted by the restless inventive
animal called man. And now that same man is spending a considerable
amount of his most prized possession--money--to gather and preserve the
broken, dried remains of that old New Zealand bird, his relatives and
ancestors.
It is now well known, that instead of but one species of Moa, as
the New Zealand savages told the missionaries, there were twenty or
more. Some of these were quite small--but little larger than the
turkey--while others, such as Dinornis (terrible bird) must have
reached a height of at least ten feet, and were, in all probability,
the largest birds that have ever been seen on earth. Remarkably enough,
some writers have not been satisfied with even these great dimensions,
and have stated the height of some of the Moas to be from twelve to
fourteen feet. These measurements, however, can be attained only by
placing the skeleton in a most unnatural position, which the bird could
not possibly have maintained while alive. There is a natural desire on
the part of man to magnify his discoveries, and the remains of extinct
creatures are favorite subjects for such romancing. Unfortunately for
the writers, these same bones offer incontestable evidence as to the
actual sizes of the creatures to which they belonged, and sooner or
later all errors must be corrected and “the high made low.” As Dr. F.
A. Lucas has insisted over and over again, the greatest monster always
shrinks before the application of a two-foot rule.
The Moas, like the modern Ostriches, were quite incapable of flight.
Indeed, many of them were totally wingless, lacking even the tiny,
almost invisible vestigial wings that are to be found in such modern
species as the Cassowary and Apteryx. But what they lacked in wings
the Moas more than made up for in legs. Those of one species, dubbed
elephantopus (elephant-footed) were so ponderous that one cannot but
wonder what purpose they served. The theory most generally accepted
is that they were of value in digging out the roots of ferns, upon
which the Moas appear to have fed. Furthermore, when we remember that
one blow from the foot of an angry ostrich is quite enough to kill a
man, we cannot doubt that the Moa was quite able to either trample
underfoot, or smash to a shapeless pulp almost any enemy that might
have assailed it. The lizard watchmen of the Maori legend are, of
course, inventions, but the ferocious habits of the enraged Moa are
without question matters of pure fact.
So far as known, the Moas were confined to New Zealand, some species
inhabiting North Island, some South, but with very few common to both.
From this fact Lucas, and others who have studied the birds, conclude
that the two islands were originally one, and that long after the Moas
came into existence there was a submergence which divided the island
into two. After that submergence sufficient time elapsed to allow for
the development of several species of Moas, each restricted to one
island. Inasmuch as the birds could not fly, and probably were poor
swimmers, there was but little intermingling of the faunas. “Although
Moas were still numerous when man made his appearance in this part
of the world, the large deposits of their bones indicate that they
were on the wane, and that natural causes had already reduced the
feathered population of these islands. A glacial period is believed to
have wrought their destruction, and in one great morass, abounding in
springs, their bones occur in such enormous numbers, layer upon layer,
that it is thought the birds sought the place where the flowing springs
might afford their feet at least some respite from the biting cold, and
there perished miserably by thousands.”[14]
The glacial cold, however, did not completely destroy the Moas. We have
already seen that legends of the birds were told to the pioneering
white missionaries, and other tales of Moa hunts and Moa feasts were
not uncommon. It is uncertain whether the last of these giants was
eaten by the ancient Maoris, or by a race that preceded them. Some
authors have suggested, apparently on fairly good ground, that Moas
formed the sole important flesh food of these prehistoric peoples,
and that with the dying out of the avian food supply, the hereditary
liking for flesh naturally led to cannibalism. Thus the savages who
destroyed the Moas turned to destroying themselves, were supplanted by
another race which handed on the knowledge of the Moas to the white man
who in turn set about killing off the savages.
From the New Zealand Moa to Sinbad the Sailor, and his huge and
unintentionally beneficent Roc, is, at first thought, a very far cry,
yet the separation is not so great as it seems. The Arabian tales give
the habitation of the Roc as either Madagascar or one of the adjoining
islands, and it seems very probable that the original of the huge bird
that carried the adventurous Sinbad out of the crater of diamonds was
the Aepyornis, a distant relative of the Moas, and an inhabitant of
Madagascar. It is quite true that the Roc was a gigantic bird quite
capable of carrying off an elephant to make a meal for its young,
while the Aepyornis was little larger than an ostrich, was incapable
of flight, and fed upon plants. These facts, however, would in no way
interfere with the fancy of an Arabian story teller, whose original
materials probably were a collection of Aeypornis legend substantiated
by fragments of the bird’s enormous eggs. Hardly greater exaggerations
are perpetrated weekly by the “feature writers” of American Sunday
newspapers, and these men have all the resources of modern science at
their disposal.
The actual scientific “discovery” of Aepyornis did not take place until
1834, when Jules Verreaux, a French ornithologist received a sketch
of a huge egg, found in the island of Madagascar. The informant, a
traveler, said that he had seen two of these eggs, one of which had
been used in cracking rice, while the other had been sawed in two to
be used as bowls. Later on, some fragments of a shell were secured by
another traveler, and finally, in 1851, two entire eggs and a number of
bones were secured and sent to France. They were studied by Geoffroy
St-Hilaire, a noted naturalist and pioneer evolutionist, who christened
them Aepyornis maximus, or “greatest lofty bird.” The last part of the
name was appropriate so far as the eggs are concerned, for they stand
as the largest of all eggs. Some idea of their size may be gained by
comparisons; the measurements alone do not mean a great deal. The
egg of the ostrich, which is usually considered to be quite immense,
measures four and one-half by six inches; that of the Aepyornis is
not less than nine by thirteen inches, and would hold the whites and
yolks of six ostrich eggs! The size seems even greater when we say
that it would hold the contents of more than twelve dozen hens’ eggs
or thirty thousands of the tiny, bean-like eggs of the hummingbird.
Had there been giants in the old days, as fairy tales and occasional
newspaper articles seek to convince us, they would have had no trouble
in satisfying their breakfast appetites with a couple of Aepyornis
eggs, poached. Fortunately for Aepyornis, in his day there were neither
giants nor newspapers; had either existed he doubtless would have been
exterminated by hunters long before his time.
Despite the excellence of their preservation, relics of the giant
birds of New Zealand and Madagascar are not easily seen by the student.
There are fine collections at Harvard University, and the American
Museum in New York, and in museums in Europe and New Zealand, but
there are few, if any Moa eggs in the United States. Specimens of this
sort are very expensive; Aepyornis eggs have sold in London for as
high as two hundred pounds (about nine hundred seventy-two dollars)
and most American museums are desperately poor, being forced to rely
on the generosity of private individuals for money with which to buy
specimens.[15]
Leaving the giant eastern birds, and the scarcity of collections of
their remains, we may transfer our attention to a group of American
birds, the huge Phororhacidae of Patagonia. Although far older,
geologically these birds were not discovered until long after the Moas
and Aepyornis were well known. Even then, it was not believed that so
massive a bone as the jaw of Phororhacos could possibly belong to a
bird, and it was necessary to find much more complete relics before
the case could be proved.
It is one of the ludicrous facts of paleontology that most of the
large-sounding names were used up on the Moas, some of which were
small, and that Dinornis (terrible bird) was wasted on root-eating
creatures that probably were of meekest temperament when not annoyed.
In the Patagonian birds, on the other hand, we have species that were
really terrible, with their powerful legs, huge heads, sharp, crooked
beaks, and strong talons. One of them, Brontornis, or thunder bird,
possessed leg bones larger than those of an ox, the drumstick being
thirty inches long and two and one-half inches thick. The corresponding
bone in the turkey, largest of the domestic birds, the length is but
five and one-half inches. The most imposing of the Patagonian birds,
however, is the Phorohacos, a creature unique among the bird world.
This creature stood seven or eight feet in height, possessed a head
larger than that of a horse and a neck as thick, and was armed with
huge, sharply hooked beak and long, sharp claws. One of Dr. Lucas’
illustrations shows the skull of the race-horse Lexington placed
beneath that of Phororhacos. That of the bird is one inch longer and
one and one-half deeper.
The structure of Phororhacos, like that of all other animals, affords
an excellent key to its food habits. Probably they did not feed upon
roots, as did the Moas, for had they done so their strong, hooked beaks
would have been useless, or nearly so. Neither is it probable that
they caught fish; the beaks of most fish-eating birds, and particularly
of the herons, which are related to Phororhacos, are long, adapted
to spearing. Beaks and claws like those of the Patagonian giant are
found, in most cases, in birds that feed on either carrion or living
animals, or both. In the accompanying illustration the bird is shown
as just having killed a small grass-eating animal, and preparing to
devour it. Were it to be proved--as it can hardly be--that Phororhacos
fed upon carrion alone, the restoration would have to be modified
greatly, in appearance though not in proportion. Carrion eaters seldom
have feathers on the upper part of the neck and the head, as may be
seen by examining such notorious eaters of dead flesh as the vultures
or “buzzards.” But the designer of the original restoration, as
life-drawings of extinct animals are called, was satisfied to consider
his subject as a swift-running bird of prey that preferred fresh killed
meat, and did the killing itself.
[Illustration: PLATE XII.
Phororhacos preparing to devour its prey.
(After Lucas.)]
FOOTNOTES:
[14] Lucas, Animals of the Past, 1st Ed., p. 143. Note that, since the
Moas were on the decline when man appeared in their environment, and
they had no other powerful enemies, the huge legs could hardly have had
defence as their chief function.
[15] This is true of the United States National Museum, at Washington,
where the customary appropriation for securing specimens is $10,000
per year. At this _national_ institution it is not rare for employees
to draw upon their own small resources in order to secure particularly
desirable collections. The same condition is to be found in other
museums of the country, excepting the American Museum of Natural
History in New York. It, though privately endowed, is housed by the
city of New York, and is the largest and best supported museum in the
western hemisphere.
Transcriber’s Note:
- Text that was in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).
- Footnotes were moved to the ends of the chapters in which they appeared.
- Illustrations were moved to the ends of the paragraphs in which they
appeared. The list of illustrations was not in the original text. Plate V
was originally untitled.
- Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.
- Minor punctuation errors have been changed without notice.
- Spelling was retained as in the original except for the following
changes:
Page 6: “elk whose carcases” to “elk whose carcasses”
Page 9: “He loked somewhat” to “He looked somewhat”
Page 10: “But, bizarre though The” to “But, bizarre though the”
Page 15: “the natural percursors” to “the natural precursors”
Page 18: “their senile aderrations” to “their senile aberrations”
Page 21: “active than the diosaurs” to “active than the dinosaurs”
Page 23: “an idea altogether to” to “an idea altogether too”
Page 30: “loked more like a gigantic” to “looked more like a gigantic”
Page 34: “survivals were of smalll” to “survivals were of small”
Page 35: “they swam about seaching” to “they swam about searching”
Page 42: “with greater ease than has” to “with greater ease than had”
Page 42: “But in all probalility” to “But in all probability”
Page 44: “uncertain though the oirgin” to “uncertain though the origin”
Page 52: “weather, bacteria, and carrrion” to “weather, bacteria, and
carrion”
Page 54: “year of 1838, whie” to “year of 1838, while”
Page 54: “especially a man, aproached” to “especially a man, approached”
Page 54: “they were very sure if” to “they were very sure of”
Page 54: “in a quite a different” to “in a quite different”
Page 55: “and that they belond” to “and that they belonged”
Page 58: “birds sought the pace” to “birds sought the place”
Page 59: “turned to destroying hemselves” to “turned to destroying
themselves”
Page 60: “studied by Goeffroy St-Hilaire” to “studied by Geoffroy
St-Hilaire”
Page 62: “and two and one-haf” to “and two and one-half”
*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ANIMALS OF ANCIENT LANDS ***
Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will
be renamed.
Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright
law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works,
so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United
States without permission and without paying copyright
royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part
of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project
Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™
concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark,
and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following
the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use
of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for
copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very
easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation
of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project
Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away—you may
do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected
by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark
license, especially commercial redistribution.
START: FULL LICENSE
THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG™ LICENSE
PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
To protect the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting the free
distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project
Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full
Project Gutenberg License available with this file or online at
www.gutenberg.org/license.
Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg
electronic works
1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg
electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or
destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg electronic works in your
possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a
Project Gutenberg electronic work and you do not agree to be bound
by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person
or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
1.B. “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark. It may only be
used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg electronic works
even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See
paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
Gutenberg electronic works if you follow the terms of this
agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg
electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below.
1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the
Foundation” or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection
of Project Gutenberg electronic works. Nearly all the individual
works in the collection are in the public domain in the United
States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the
United States and you are located in the United States, we do not
claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing,
displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as
all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope
that you will support the Project Gutenberg mission of promoting
free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg
works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the
Project Gutenberg name associated with the work. You can easily
comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the
same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg License when
you share it without charge with others.
1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are
in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States,
check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this
agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing,
distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any
other Project Gutenberg work. The Foundation makes no
representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any
country other than the United States.
1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other
immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg License must appear
prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg work (any work
on which the phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or with which the
phrase “Project Gutenberg” is associated) is accessed, displayed,
performed, viewed, copied or distributed:
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
of the Project Gutenberg™ License included with this eBook or online
at www.gutenberg.org. If you
are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws
of the country where you are located before using this eBook.
1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg electronic work is
derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not
contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the
copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in
the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are
redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase “Project
Gutenberg” associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply
either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or
obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg
trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg electronic work is posted
with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any
additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms
will be linked to the Project Gutenberg License for all works
posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the
beginning of this work.
1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg
License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg.
1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
Gutenberg License.
1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including
any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access
to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg work in a format
other than “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other format used in the official
version posted on the official Project Gutenberg website
(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense
to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means
of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original “Plain
Vanilla ASCII” or other form. Any alternate format must include the
full Project Gutenberg License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg works
unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
access to or distributing Project Gutenberg electronic works
provided that:
• You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
the use of Project Gutenberg works calculated using the method
you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed
to the owner of the Project Gutenberg trademark, but he has
agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid
within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are
legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty
payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in
Section 4, “Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg
Literary Archive Foundation.”
• You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg™
License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all
copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue
all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg™
works.
• You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of
any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of
receipt of the work.
• You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
distribution of Project Gutenberg™ works.
1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project
Gutenberg™ electronic work or group of works on different terms than
are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing
from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of
the Project Gutenberg™ trademark. Contact the Foundation as set
forth in Section 3 below.
1.F.
1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project
Gutenberg™ collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg™
electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may
contain “Defects,” such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate
or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or
other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or
cannot be read by your equipment.
1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the “Right
of Replacement or Refund” described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
Gutenberg™ trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
Gutenberg™ electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
DAMAGE.
1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you
received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium
with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you
with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in
lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person
or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second
opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If
the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing
without further opportunities to fix the problem.
1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you ‘AS-IS’, WITH NO
OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT
LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of
damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement
violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the
agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or
limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or
unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the
remaining provisions.
1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
providing copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in
accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the
production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg™
electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses,
including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of
the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this
or any Project Gutenberg work, (b) alteration, modification, or
additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg work, and (c) any
Defect you cause.
Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg is synonymous with the free distribution of
electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of
computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It
exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations
from people in all walks of life.
Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg’s
goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg collection will
remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
and permanent future for Project Gutenberg and future
generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary
Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see
Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org.
Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit
501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
Revenue Service. The Foundation’s EIN or federal tax identification
number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary
Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by
U.S. federal laws and your state’s laws.
The Foundation’s business office is located at 41 Watchung Plaza #516,
Montclair NJ 07042, USA, +1 (862) 621-9288. Email contact links and up
to date contact information can be found at the Foundation’s website
and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
Literary Archive Foundation
Project Gutenberg™ depends upon and cannot survive without widespread
public support and donations to carry out its mission of
increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest
array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations
($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
status with the IRS.
The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations
where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND
DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular state
visit www.gutenberg.org/donate.
While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
approach us with offers to donate.
International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation
methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other
ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To
donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate.
Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg electronic works
Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project
Gutenberg concept of a library of electronic works that could be
freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and
distributed Project Gutenberg eBooks with only a loose network of
volunteer support.
Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed
editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in
the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not
necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper
edition.
Most people start at our website which has the main PG search
facility: www.gutenberg.org.
This website includes information about Project Gutenberg,
including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
