Abstract
THE volume with this title treats of large animals. It is clearly and simply written, without any pretence at being scientific, and is an excellent book for boys and unlearned people who are curious to be informed upon the subject of fossil animals. It would have escaped criticism altogether but for emphatic words of praise in the preface, and one or two passages in which the author, with second- hand information, speaks authoritatively of predecessors who restored extinct types of life with the slender materials which were available forty years ago. The attraction of the volume and its novelty is a series of restorations of saurians and mammals drawn chiefly by Mr. Sinit. These for the most part are based upon the restorations of skeletons made by Prof. Marsh, whose discoveries have inspired Mr. Smit's pencil as much as they have influenced the author's pen. There is not much anatomy beneath the skins of the “Monsters,” and they have an aspect as though cotton-wool had taken the place of muscle, or as though the drawings were models for the “Lowther Arcade.” This, however, is of less importance than the answer given to the question, Are they reasonably faithful to nature? It does not seem to me that they can claim this merit; they are only reasonably faithful to Marsh. Prof. Marsh draws an animal so as to give one type the maximum height to which the bones can be hoisted; while another is given the maximum length to which the remains can be extended. My own studies would not have led me to reconstruct one of the extinct reptiles upon the lines which are adopted in these restorations. As an example of how a restoration should not be made, we may instance the figure of Stegosaurus ungulatus (p. 104), in which the management of the limbs is out of harmony with the evidences of the muscular structure of the tail, and the supra-vertebral crest. The restoration of the Scelidosaurus from the Lias of England is unsatisfactory. There is no better ground for giving a kangaroo-like position to that animal than there would be for drawing Teleosaurus in the same position. The mobility of the neck as drawn is astonishing.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
S., H. Extinct Monsters. Nature 47, 250–252 (1893). https://doi.org/10.1038/047250a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/047250a0