Title: The dinosaur book : the ruling reptiles and their relatives
Identifier: dinosauruli13colb (find matches)
Year: 1945 (1940s)
Authors: Colbert, Edwin H. (Edwin Harris), 1905-2001; Germann, John C
Subjects: Dinosaurs; Reptiles, Fossil
Publisher: New York, N. Y. : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: IMLS / LSTA / METRO

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THE FIRST OF THE HORNED DINOSAURS, Protoceratops, from the Cretaceous of Mongolia. In this primitive member of the group the horns were as yet undeveloped Restoration by Charles R. Knight, copyright The Chicago Natural History Museum dinosaurs had a real armor plating, an over- lapping pavement of bony plates presum- ably covered with horny sheaths, which en- cased the entire body, head and tail, arma- dillo-fashion. Ankijlosaurus (an-kyle-o-SAWR-us) was typical of this group of dinosaurs. A me- dium-size dinosaur this was, quadrupedal in pose and of heavy build. The skull was broad and strongly protected by the armor plates, while the arched back was com- pletely encased by the articulating scutes. Add to this a heavy, stiff tail, ending in a huge clublike mass of bone and you have a picture of Ankijlosaurus. Here was the tank of Cretaceous days, low, squat, and strongly protected by his outer casing. He could blunder along through the world without a great deal of concern about the rapacious carnivores that ranged far and wide, the gigantic Tyran- nosaurus and his lesser relatives. By seeking refuge within the strength of his shell he was fairly safe from attack, and with the knout on the end of his tail he might lay about him, to create devastation within the arc swept by that mighty club. Most of the other armored dinosaurs of the Cretaceous were generally similar to Ankijlosaurus. Of these, Palaeoscincus (pale-e-o-SKiNK-us) and Nodosaurus (node- o-sawr-us) may be mentioned. Ceratopsia Of all the dinosaurs the Ceratopsia (ser- a-TOPS-e-ya) or horned ornithischians were the last to appear. The earliest ceratopsians appear in beds of Cretaceous age, and in the relatively short lapse of geologic time between their rise and their final extinction 79

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