dinosaurs

1. some other modern domestic animals. The great size of the bones caused him to take them to the Smithsonian Institution for analysis by scientists. Prof. Gilmore
without hesitation pro-nounced them to be the remains of
dinosaurs. This was the third find of dinosaur fossils within the district of Columbia, the other bones also hav-ing been discovered in the North-east-ern section
of the city.
Describing the importance of these bones in reconstructing for the pres-ent generation conditions here in a pre-historic age, Prof. Gilmore paint-
ed a vivid picture of the dinosaur.
"One of the bones found in North-east Washington," he said, "was in a state of almost perfect preservation. It consists of a single tail vertebra that can he
recognised as belonging to
one of the huge flesh-eating forms of dinosaur, an animal not less than 30 feet in length. This monster, when prowling around on its hind legs, would be
approximately 15 feet high. In addition to the dinosaurs, curious
reptiles of gigantic proportions basked on the river stone or crept through the tangled masses of vegetation. There were, for instance, a horned
crocodile long since extinct, and an-cient turtles with fantastic markings on their shells. Fossils occur in the
ul ......o formation of the Upper Cuta-nexus geological age ,and the discovery . u.U..'élu..., varieties of fossilised bones in the iron mines near Muirkirk,
Maryland, about 15 miles from Wash-
ington pointed unmistakably to the presence of hordes of entirely forgot-ten prehistoric creatures.
Dr. Ridley supports these assertions with accounts of other quadrupeds
and bipeds, who roamed through the regions around modern Washington.
CHANGE IN FAUNA NOTED
"At the present time." Dr. Gidley pointed out, "there are comparatively few wild animals in the vicinity of
.... ^...jii^vi and most of these are often small and inconspicuous. They
,.,i I,IUOLI.> ui squirrels, chipmunks, "oij.i.1, woodchucks or marmots, oc-..J.IJ.I«! t,ivniiAd ... and more rarely ..i«...-to, 4.U.VV..,, raccoons and oppos-
sums in the mountain regions to the ...ward are still to be found, ii. .., ,....ituu number, deer, black bear and wolves, remnants of a plentiful
... game fauna that once inhabited the general region at the period of

2. PECULIAR DENTITION
"This creature," said Prof. Gilmore, "had the most remarkable set of teeth
known to science. They would have
proved a problem to a modern dentist. There was a row of from 50 to 58 teeth in each jaw, but arranged in vertical rows one below another. Since the dinosaur
possessed from 8 to 14 rows on either side, there was a bat-tery of something more than 2,000 teeth in the mouth of a single ani-mal. As the teeth wear out, those
below move upward or downward — de-pending on the position of the former — to take the place of the worn-out molars. This procedure continued throughout
the dinosaur's life."
Not long ago, Prof. Gilmore was dis-patched to the old President Monroe Farm in Loudoun County, Va., by the Smithsonian Institution, when the ow-ner of that
homestead discovered strange impressions embedded in the rock of an ancient quarry on the es-tate. These impressions resembled animal trucks and were much
larger than those of any living animal, Prof. Gilnore, upon examining them, at once recognised the dents as the foot-prints of a dinosaur — the first to be
discovered in Virginia. The owner of the farm, contributed a slab of the rock to the National Museum, where the tracks of these ancient animals
having a stride of 52 inches) are now exhibited.