Abstract
American Journal of Science, August.—Principal characters of American Jurassic Dinosaurs, part vi.: Restoration of Bronto-saurus, with plate, by Prof. O. C. Marsh. The restoration is effected by bones belonging almost exclusively to a single individual, which when alive was about fifty feet long; chief characteristics: long flexible neck, very short body, massive legs and feet, the latter plantigrade, and leaving footprints about a square yard in extent, very large tail with solid bones, remarkably small head, smaller in proportion to the body than that of any other known vertebrate, skull being less in diameter or weight than the fourth or fifth cervical vertebra. The living animal must have weighed over twenty tons, and appears to have been a stupid reptile of slow motion, without offensive weapons or dermal armature, amphibious in habits, feeding on aquatic and other succulent plants.—The evolution of the American trotting horse, by Francis E. Nipher. The minimum time of trotting a mile, in a previous paper determined at 93, is here reduced to 91 seconds, and it is suggested that the trotter will very probably finally surpass the race-horse in speed.—On concave gratings for optical purposes, by Henry A. Rowland, Professor of Physics, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore.—Glacial markings of unusual forms in the Laurentian Hills, by Dr. Edmund Andrews. Several illustrations are given of the peculiar marks here described, which are chiefly curved striæ, serrated striæ, and curious scoop-marks, both striated and unstriated, very difficult to explain on any theory of glacial action.—Response to the remarks of Messrs. Wachsmuth and Springer on the genera Glyptocrinus and Reteocrinus, by S. A. Miller.—On the present status of the eccentricity theory of glacial climate, by W. J. McGee. In reply to recent critics the author urges several arguments in defence of Croll's theory of secular variations in terrestrial climate.—On the commingling of ancient faunal and modern floral types in the Laramie group, by Charles A. White.—Notes on some fossil plants from Northern China, by J. S. Newberry. From the general character of these plants, which were collected by Mr. Arnold Hague, the author considers that Pumpelly and Richthofen's estimates of the great area and value of the North China coal and iron deposits are by no means unwarranted. The plants, all of the Carboniferous age, seem to prove that the Chinese coal basins belong to two great geological systems, one answering to that of the European and American coal-measures, the other probably referable to the Rhoetic and Lias.—Review of De Candolle's “Origin of Cultivated Plants,” with annotations on certain American species, by Asa Gray and J. Hammond Trumbull.—On the supposed human footprints recently found in Nevada, by O. C. Marsh.
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Scientific Serials . Nature 28, 430–431 (1883). https://doi.org/10.1038/028430a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/028430a0