267725304-How-and-Why-Wonder-Book-of-Fossils

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THE HOW AND WHY WONDER BOOK OF FOSSILS Written by JOHN BURTON Illustrated by JOHN BARBER BISON (BISON ANTIQUUS) MASTODON (MAMMUT AMERICANUS) Publishers· GROSSET & DUNLAP· New York A FILMWAYS COMPANY

SCOLOSAURUS INTRODUCTION Fossils, the remains of extinct animals and plants, are much morein evidence than most people realize. For instance, coal is the remainsof plants that lived in swampy forests millions of years ago. Limestone,often used as building stone, is the remains of extinct sea creatures.Amber, used for making jewelry, is the fossilized remains of resinfrom pine trees. Chalk, oil, and many other substances are fossilremains of extinct plants and animals from long ago. Occasionally, more spectacular fossils are found - dinosaurs inNorth America, frozen mammoths in Siberia, cave bears in the Alps,and so forth. But anyone can find fossils. By looking carefully in chalk,limestone, or coal, it is always possible to find a really beautiful fossil. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 75-4015 ISBN: 0-448-05076-5 (Wonder Book Edition) ISBN: 0-448-04074-3 (Trade Edition) ISBN: 0-448-03870-6 (Library Edition) Published in the United States by Grosset & Dunlap, Inc., New York, N.Y. FIRST PRINTING 1976 Originally published in Great Britain by Transworld Publishers Ltd. Transworld Edition Published 1974. Copyright© 1974 Transworld Publishers Ltd. . All Rights Reserved. Printed in the United States of America.

CONTENTS Page PageFOSSILS-A HISTORY OF THE PAST THE PEOPLE WHO STUDIED FOSSILSWhat are fossils? 4 When were fossils first studied? 31How are reconstructions of fossil~ made? 5 What discoveries were made during the Renaissance?How are models of fossils made1 6 32When did the first fossils live? 7 What are glossopetrae? 32When was Earth formed? 10 What are strata? 33What came after the Cambrian 10 Who was the \"Father of English 33 period? geology\"?When did land animals evolve? 11 Who was the most famous woman 34 fossil hunter?When were mammals first found? 13 Have fossil footprints ever been found? 35When did the dinosaurs live? 15 What did Mantell's reptile look like? 35When did dinosaurs die out? 15 What is evolution? 36When did modern animals evolve? 17 Who was the first to collectWhich period do we live in? 19 evolutionary evidence? 36SOME \"SPECIAL\" FOSSILS Who was \"Darwin's bulldog\"? 37What are the most valuable fossils Who were the most famous fossil collectors in the United States?in the world? 20 38What animals have been found in What did the Indians think of fossil collectors?tar pits? 21 39Which were the best-preserved fossils What was the \"Battle of the Bones\"? 39ever found? 22 How did the \"Battle of the Bones\" end? 40What is amber? 23 Where is the National Dinosaur Monument?Have other animals been found in 41amber? 24 What else did Henry Osborn discover? 41What are the largest fossils? 24 When did man evolve? 42Where have fossil birds been found? 26 Where is the Olduvai Gorge? 42Was another Archaeopteryx ever found? 26 Who was Neanderthal man? 43Have flying reptiles been found? 27 Why is Piltdown man famous? 44Why are ichthyosaurs well preserved? 28 Why is the village of Pikermi famous? 44Which is the largest ichthyosaur? 29 How do we know what fossil men ate? 45What are living fossils? 29 Were fossil men artistic? 46Why are Australian animals so When were the most recent fossilsspecial? 30 formed?

/ i V j '/ ..'.- Fossils - A History of the PastFossils are the remains of animals and aries are often well preserved, as rivers are often full of fine mud and sand What are plants that have been pre- known as ''sift.\" The word \"fossil\" comes from a Latin word that means fossils? served in rocks. There to dig up. Originally, a fossil was any- thing dug up , out of the ground, but are many ways this can now we use the word only for ·the re- mains of once-living things. By study-happen: after an animal dies, its skele- ing the types of fossils from long ago, scientists can reconstruct the world aston may be preserved without changing it was in the past. Some kinds of plants and animals grow in warm climates,much; over many years the bones may others in forests, and so on. If such fos- sils are found, it is possible to deducebe replaced with rock; or· the animal the climate and also what the world looked like.may dissolve away and the space itleaves becomes filled with mud or sand,which slowly hardens into rock. The best fossils are usually formedwhen a dead animal or plant falls intovery fine mud and is quickly coveredover. For this reason the animals andplants living in swamps and river estu-4

/ IA rhinoceros trapped in a swamp is easy prey for the fierce Smilodon. It has also attracted wolves and vultures.When fossils are found as a complete to make a single model of a complete skeleton.How are set of \"associated\" The next stage is to compare thereconstructions of bones (where the bones with other fossils, and also with those of animals still living. Each of thefossils made? bones are all to- bones is then examined very carefully for the small lumps and bumps thatgether in such a way that it is obvious indicate where the muscles were at- tached. These small lumps and bumpsthat they all came from one animal), may even suggest approximately how big and powerful the muscles were.it is often possible to put the skeleton Usually the scientist and an artist work together. The scientist informs the ar-together and start reconstructing right tist as to how the animal should appear and .the artist sketches or models it.away. More frequently, however, the The scientist then compares the sketch or model with the fossil bones and tellsbones are crushed and broken, and usu- the artist of any alterations.ally only part of a skeleton is found. 5First, the bones must be repaired andrestored, and then a concept of the .complete skeleton may be possible.Placing the bits together often takes .many months of careful work in a lab-oratory. Sometimes the evidence fromseveral bits of skeletons is combined

When a model is being made, the artist the color is determined by comparing the fossil with a similar living animal How are models of aoftefnr ammaekwesour kp that lives in the same sort of habitat. foss1•1s made?. But this can often be misleading - based on the after all, the bones of a horse and a zebra look similar, and they both live skeleton, and then builds up the mus- in open grasslands - yet they appear quite different. cles onto it, finally clothing the whole animal in a \"skin.\" The finished details of color, length of fur, and so on, are usually mostly guesswork. Normally, An artist forming model of a woolly mammoth. - ~- - - - - - - -, 1·I -6 I

~ /.~~'~A diagram of Earth's strata, showing .the kind of fossils found in each layer.Paleontologists (scientists studying fos- the table on pages 8 and 9 shows that the Pleistocene Period lasted onlyWhen did the first sils) using very about 211z million years, but the Per- powerful m1. cro- mian lasted about 55 million years.f oss1.1s 11•ve?. scopes have found During the Cambrian Period, which began over 570 million years ago, thethe fossilized remains of bacteria and first really recognizable plants and ani- mals began to develop. Fossils of manyother simple forms of life in rocks about different animals have been found, but they are all invertebrates-that is, ani-3 billion years old. The rocks in which mals without backbones. The animals with backbones (known as vertebrates),certain fossils are found are often simi- such as fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals, did not evolve on thislar, and they also contain the same planet until many millions of years later.kind of fossils in different parts of the 7world. Over millions of years the rocksformed on top of one another. Thelayers are known as strata. These stratahave been given names to make themeasier to remember. The time it tookthem to build up varies. For instance,

00 · A TIME SCALE Eras Periods and Epochs When They Began \"O Recent Epoch 8,000 to about Great (Holocene) 10,000 years ago mamm ..0.... -U \"ro' Pleistocene Epoch, 2.5 to 3 million Glacie I-< also called the years ago Climat s1--4 <!.) . Great Ice Age times. s0N ro zo...~.., i:i.. . Pliocene Epoch 13 million years ago High m · Miocene Epoch 25 million years ago Alps, C uIll 0 Qsro:: Oligocene Epoch 40 million years ago of the ~ 55 million years ago bony f !:ii I-< Eocene Epoch 65 million years ago domin Paleocene Epoch becam .r.<.o!...) day. A ' ::l . 0 'O 0 ·i:: <!.) i:i.. Q ....~.. I-< r-.<!.) Cretaceous Period Lands 136 million years ago abund of oys u~\"' Jurassic Period Lands 180 million years ago and sw oP..1--4 ...... .• near th oN ~<I.> ·. world. CZl ·'a · I~ll ~d . .' \" Triassic Period Seas c 230 million years ago early p hipped

OF EARTH IDSTORY Changes in Lands, Seas, and Living Things glaciers melted for the last time; climates grew warm. Many large landmals died out near the end of the period.ers repeatedly spread over much of Europe, Asia, and North America. tes and seas were cold when glaciers spread, but warm during interglacial Mammals grew large and varied; man evolved. mountains, including the Rockies, formed as this period began. The Andes, Cascades, and Himalayas rose in later epochs. Seas seldom covered much continents. Mammals became common and varied on land; sharks and fish were plentiful. Modern types of corals, clams, snails, etc., becamenant in seas; ammonites and belemnites died out, but squids and octopusesme common. Land plants became more and more like those of the presentApelike ancestors of man evolved.s generally were low, climates were mild, and bird-hipped dinosaurs weredant and varied. Seas spread widely; ammonites, belemnites, and relativessters were common, as were marine reptiles.s were low; seas covered much of Europe; there were deserts, volcanoes, wampy forests in western North America. Marine reptiles were common he end of the period. Dinosaurs became very large and spread around the . Birds evolved. covered much of Europe; ammonites became common. lchthyosaurs and plesiosaurs evolved, as did other reptilian groups and mammals. Lizard- d dinosaurs became common, but most of them were small.

Permian Period Coal swa 280 million years ago glaciers s lowlands; Carboniferous Period Coal was 345 million years ago building large and early par .....~...... Devonian Period Most of N Silurian Period 400 million years ago began to N00\"U'\"\"\"...-.(i..:~.):l.: ~<ll:i i::: fish evolv ~ Europe r 440 million years ago of it was Poi cd to evolve ll'\":\"i ,. . Shifting s 500 million years ago in the Ea Ordovician Period trilobites .. . .~:'.. ·, .·.. ,. ' '' \...·'. : 570 to 620 million Most of years ago region at . - Cambrian Period and trilob -- PRECAMBRIAN ERAS Probably more than Many ch (Variously divided on the · 4.6 billion years ago world; gr differe~t continents) few fossil\"°

amps were much reduced; mountains formed in eastern North America;spread in South Africa. Large amphibians and reptiles lived in swampy; sharklike fish and early ammonoids were common. deposited in great swamps; seas spread but did not last long; mountain- continued in the East and in Europe. Amphibians and reptiles becamed common. Seas covered much of North America, especially during thert of this period.North America was low and flat; seas spread widely, though mountains rise and forests grew on low deltas. In the Old Red basins of Europe,ved into amphibians as they tried to remain in water. '·remained mountainous, but most of North America was low and .muchs under salt water. Marine life was abundant; jawless \"fish\" continuede; sea scorpions were common in brackish ·waters.seas covered more than half of North America, but mountains formedast and in Europe. Most corals remained small, but brachiopods and became common, and straight cephalopods grew very large. North America was low, after mountain-building in the Great Lakest the end of Precambrian times. Marine animals, especially brachiopodsbites, became common fossils, but many other groups existed.hanges in lands and seas; mountain-building in various parts of thereat volcanic eruptions; formations of important ore deposits; relatively ls.

,. \ The periods did not suddenly end, What came after the but conditions Cambrian period? graduallyI changed, tak-II ing thousands, or even millions, of years. The O~dovician Period, which followed the Cambrian, began approxi- mately 500 million years ago and lasted for about 60 million years. The seas of the Ordovician Period were full of life - and some of the animals were simi- lar to those still alive today. There were lots of echinoderms. Echinoderms are animals like starfish, sea urchins and brittle stars. (The name \"echinoderm\" comes from the Greek words ekhinos '.,~- and derm, ·meaning \"hedgehog\" and -./' \"skin\" - many of them, such as sea '.\"' ~• _...... l • urchins, have prickly skins.) There were also lots of different mollusks and cor- The period before the Cambrian is als, as well as trilobites. But there were When was · known as . the Pre- still no animals on dry land. Earth formed?. cambn.an and only a few fossils are evident Ordovician life from these times - only simple bac- teria and algae (like the green slime in pond.s). Some of these are about 3 billion years old! The Precambrian stretches back to the time when the earth formed - about 4.6 billion years ago. During the Cambrian Period mol- lusks (related to slugs and snails) and sea worms were common, and many have been preserved as fossils. Another animal that was common for millions of years, and was first seen during the Cambrian Period, was the trilobite. They no longer exist now, but nearly all museum: collections of fossils have excellent specimens of trilobites. 10

1 ' ERYOPSDevonian land animals Devonian fishesFollowing the Ordovician Period have been found in rocks formed dur-came the Silurian, which started about ing the Silurian Period. During the440 million years ago and lasted some Devonian Period, which followed and40 million years. During this period lasted about 55 million years, eventhere were lots of shallow coral seas. more land animals evolved, includingThey must have been very colorful and woodlice, spiders, and insects (thoughfull of life. not flying insects). The Devonian Pe- riod is often called the \"Age of Fishes.\"Land animals probably evolved when Many beautifully preserved fossils haveWhen did land the ponds and been found, and they show that fishanimals evolve? evolved into many different shapes and pools in which they sizes during the Devonian Period. By lived kept dryingout. Those that managed to survive the end of the Devonian Period am-eventually bred, and gradually land phibians were also around - the firstp '· animals breathing air evolved. land vertebrates - though they had toThe first fossil land animals were return to water in order to breed, justlike scorpions and millipedes, and they as some insects, such as dragonflies, 11

Life in Carboniferous timesstill do. Amphibians are creatures like If you look at coal carefully, you canfrogs, toads, and newts. The name often see impressions of plants. Alsocomes from the Greek amphi and bios, living in the forests were giant am-which mean \"both kinds\" and \"life,\" phibians ,- salamanderlike animals upbecause these animals live both in water to 10 feet long. They probably fed onand on land. The period that followed other amphibians as well as fish. Thethe Devonian was the Carboniferous, first reptiles also lived during this pe-which started about 345 million years riod, and insects flew among the trees.ago. The Carboniferous was the time The largest insect ever known was awhen the fossil we know as coal was fossil .dragonfly, which lived in Car-formed. Coal is the fossilized remains boniferous forests. It had a wingspanof trees and plants that grew in the of about 3 feet - its remams wereswampy forests of the Carboniferous found in France.Period - giant ferns and other plants.12

During the Permian Period, which fol- lowed the Carboniferous When were and started about 280 mammals million years ago, many first found? more different reptiles were found, and often they lived in very dry desert areas. None of the reptiles was very big - the largest was less than 10 feet long. Although it is diffi- cult to know exactly when mammals evolved, we do know that during the Permian some of the reptiles were simi- lar to mammals. From just the fossi- lized bones, it is always difficult to de- cide when the first mammals appeared. Life in Permian timesDIPLOCAULUS

The di nosaurs includest animals that hed some of the larg- ave ever existed.

The dinosaurs first walked the earth dur- By the end of the Cretaceous Period, ing the Triassic Pe- dinosaurs were extinct. When did the riod, which started When did But they did not sud- disonaurs live? dinosaurs 225 million · years die out? denly die out, as many believe. Over severalago and lasted about 35 million yearsuntil the Jµrassic Period, which started thousands or eve~- millions of yearsabout 190 million years ago. The Juras- they slowly disappeared, one by one.sic not only saw the first birds, b~t also Millions of years later, it seems to usthe beginning of the \"Age of Reptiles.\" as though they became extinct veryA wide variety of giant dinosaurs, quickly. No one really knows why theichthyosaurs, and pterodactyls had dinosaurs became extinct. There areevolved, and they continued to live un- lots of suggestions; probably changestil they became extinct near the end in the weather, which would alter theof the Cretaceous Period, which ended plants on which some of them fod, weresome 65 million years ago. Many famous important. But the dinosaurs did notdinosaur remains come from rocks suddenly go - and they walked theformed during the Jurassic and Creta- earth for millions of years longer thanceous Periods. people have.The Cretaceous period. Two dinosaurs fight over the carcass of a Stegosaurus.

Life in Eocene times The Paleocene and Eocene, the earli- kinds. Fossil ancestors of most of theest epochs of the Tertiary Period in the · main groups of living mammals can beCenozoic Era, followed the Cretaceous found in the strata of the Eocene: therePeriod. It started about 65 million are hoofed animals (ungulates), flesh-years ago and lasted 25 million years. eaters (carnivores), pouched animalsDuring this time mammals (animals (marsupials), primitive whales (zeuglo-that have live babies that nurse on donts) and even fossil primates - themilk) developed into many different ancestors of man.16

During the Oligocene Epoch, which ern ones. In fact, many are believed to lasted about 14 be direct ancestors of modern animals. During the Miocene Epoch that fol- When did modern million years and lowed (about 26 million years ago), most of the animals in the world were animals evolve? very similar to the modern types. started about 40million years ago, many fossil mam-mals and other animals were like mod-Some of the animals of the Oligocene Epoch Some o.f the animals of the Miocene EpochINDRICOTHERIUM MIOCENE LANDSCAPE

Some of the S0 me of theancestors of the ancestors of theelephant family. horse family. EOHIPPUS

The most recent epoch is known as Age was not continuous - sometimes ice spread out from the poles and came the Holocene, but as far as New England, but at other Whi,~h p~r?iod do scientists are still times the weather became quite mild, we 1ve m. and the countryside was more like that not certain as to found in East Africa today, with large animals roaming in abundance. whether or not we are still living in the I Pleistocene Epoch. The Pleistocene is .1 I often called the Ice Age; but the Ice During the Pleistocene Epoch these animals roamed the ground of many of today's cities.e

Coal is the fossil remains of swampy forests . Fossils of plants (and even animals) are easy to find in coal. Some \"Special\" Fossils .If you visit a natural history museum, vegetation that was later covered and What are the most you may walk trapped underground was transformed past the most into oil and coal. Modern life depends valuable fossils in on oil and coal for many things, but valuable fossils some sci'entists think that we are burn- the world? without even no-ticing them. The most valuable fossils in_g oil and coal so fast that it will soonare oil and coal. They are so valuable be used up. It is strange to think thatI. that without them modern civilization the grandchildren and even the children I would stop almost at once. Coal is of the readers of this book will prob-I' made from plant remains about 350 ably see gasoline-fueled cars only in mu-million years old, and oil from small seums. This is because gasoline, like soforms of life in the sea. At that time many other things, is made from natu-much of the earth's surface was cov- ral oil, the substance which was onceered by luxuriant swamps; the rotting fossil plants.20

Sometimes oil seeps to the surface of thousands of horses, elephantlike ani- mals, many birds, and other animalsWhat animals the earth to form that were probably attracted by poolshave been found tar pits. These of water on top of the tar. The largerin tar pits? sticky tar pits be- meat-eating animals saw these animals come death traps struggling, but when they tried to get at them, they too became trapped. Thisfor any animals that walk too close to is how animals like Smilodons (saber- toothed cats) and vultures becamethem. It is in tar pits that some of the caught.best-preserved fossils have been found.In the famous tar pit, at Rancho laBrea in California scientists have foundThe tar pits at Rancho la Brea trapped many animals. Meat-eating animals, like this saber-toothed cat, wereattracted by them. They were also trapped by the tar.

Frozen mammoths have been found in Siberia.The best-preserved fossils are undoubt- One of the best-preserved mammoths was found in 1799, when one was Which were the best- edly the frozen found frozen in a block of ice by a mamm0 ths Tungus (an inhabitant of Siberia). preserved fossils found in Si- Nearly four years after the discovery, ever found? the head and tusks began to thaw out beria. These of the ice,., and the Tungus took a Rus- sian ivory trader to see the mammoth.have been known for many hundreds The trader had never seen a mammoth so well preserved, and so he made someof years. Natives living there once be- quick drawings and sent them to the Academy in St. Petersburg (now calledlieved the mammoth was some sort of Leningrad). One of the scientists who saw the drawing was an Englishmangiant mole that died as soon as it saw named Henry Adams. He organized an expedition to find the mammoth indaylight! They fed the meat from the 1806 and bring back what remained ofmammoths to their dogs, and collectedthe ivory from the tusks and tradedwith it. Until very recently the ivoryfrom mammoths was a very importantsource of the world's ivory- manyworks of art in China were made fromit.22

it. He was lucky and managed to get Above - a wasp preserved in a piece of amber.most of the skin, one ear, and nearly allof the skeleton. Unfortunately, while Bottom - wasps and other insects are often trappedthe thick woolly hide was being taken in the sticky resin on pine trees .back to St. Petersburg, most of the hairrubbed off. But Henry Adams pointed in the course of time has hardened andout that the fact that mammoths were become a beautiful clear orange-yellowcovered with thick hair meant that they color. Occasionally, amber is foundcould have lived in the cold North. with insects perfectly preserved withinUntil then it had been ass'llmed that the it.North Pole had moved and that the\"elephants\" had died when it became One of the areas of the world that iscold. richest in amber is the Baltic Sea re- gion of the U.S.S.R. For centuries the Woolly rhinos have also been found local inhabitants have collected amber,preserved in blocks of ice, but the best and nowadays all the amber is ownedspecimens of woolly rhinoceroses were by the state. In the Middle Ages thetwo young ones found together with a \"amber route\" was a trade route frommammoth calf in Poland. They had the Baltic to Constantinople (nowbeen \"pickled\" by accidentally falling known as Istanbul), where the valuableinto an oil pit and were then preserved amber was carved into rosaries, neck-in the paraffin-like oil. laces, and other jewelry.Amber is the fossilized remains of the 23 resin produced by pine What is amber? trees. In some parts of the world, pine trees are still\"tapped\" for resin to produce turpen-tine. The resin is collected in· much thesame way as rubber is collected - asmall cut is made in the side of the treeand a cup hung beneath it to collect theliquid as it oozes out. When a pine treeis damaged or a branch has broken off,you can sometimes see the resin oozingout; if you look closely, you will alsooften see insects stuck to the resin.More resin may then gradually coverthe insect, encasing it in a tomb ofresin. This very same thing happenedmillions of years ago, and amber is thefossil remains of ancient resin, which

Other animals, like spiders and even Have other small lizards, have animals been occasionally been found in amber? found encased in amber. These fos-sils are particularly interesting, sinceanimals as small and fragile as insectsand spiders are seldom preserved. Notonly have the whole bodies of small ani-mals been found, but also odd feathersfrom small birds, and hair from mam-mals. Seeds and pollen are also foundfrom time to time. Ever since ancienttimes, collectors have looked for ambercontaining insects and other animals.In Europe, during the Renaissance pe-riod, forgeries were made to fool the en-thusiastic and ignorant collectors whowould pay high prices for such things.The forger would hollow out the amberand place in it a fish, lizard, or perhapsa frog or a bird, pour linseed oil intothe cavity, and carefully plug the open-ing with another piece of amber.Among the largest of the dinosaurs is What are the Apatosaurus (Bron- tosaurus). The fossil largest fossils? remains of this hugeanimal have been so well preserved thata complete skeleton has been recon-structed in the American Museum ofNatural History. In life it was about65 feet long, and it is estimated that it Diplodocus, though not as bulky as Apatosaurus, was longer. It grew toweighed about 50,000 pounds. But the about 97 feet, but this included a very long, slender tail. Philanthropist An-head and brain were minute in com- drew Carnegie paid for the excavation of several of these dinosaurs, so a scien-parison with its body size. tist named it after him - Diplodocus carnegii. He also paid to have a life- The best specimens have been foundin the Jurassic strata of Wyoming,where many dinosaurs have been found.Another well-known giant dinosaur,24

Diplodocus was one of the largest land animals. Millions of years ago it lived in swampy lakes.sized restoration of the skeleton made, tons. Like the two previous species, itand replicas of it were sent to several probably spent much of its life inother museums. They are on public dis- swamps and lakes, where it would beplay in Paris, London, Berlin, and safer from its enemies, and the waterVienna. would help support its vast weight. It probably fed mainly on aquatic vege- Another giant was Brachiosaurus, tation, which it would be able to reachwhich was over 80 feet long, over 40 under water with its long neck.feet high at its head, and weighed 80 25

In 1861, in a small village in Bavaria, a discovery was Where have fossil birds been found? made that really ~ demonstratedI Darwin's theory of evolution: a very primitive bird from the Jurassic period. It was found in a quarry near Soln- hofen in southern Germany, where fine limestone was quarried for use in the printing industry as lithographic print- ing stones. Some years earlier there were rumors . (Above) Archaeopteryx, the earliest known bird, isthat fossil feathers had been found in much more like a reptile than modern birds.Jurassic limestone in this part of Ger-many, but most experts said this was (Right) Some flying reptiles. All flying reptiles are nowmuch too early for birds. Then, in extinct.1861, a nearly complete fossil wasfound. The impressions made by the a quarry fairly close to Solnhofen. Thiswing feathers and the feathers on the specimen was even better preservedtail were clearly visible-only the head than the first - even the head was wellwas missing. The fossil was acquired by preserved. Remarkably, it came intoa local doctor, who realized its value; the hands of Ernst Haberlein, the sonand after the Director of the Natural of the doctor who had sold the firstHistory Department of the British Mu- Archaeopteryx. By 1881, it had beenseum had sent an expert to examine it, bought and was safely installed in theit was bought for the British Museum. Berlin Natural Science Museum. ThisAt the time it seemed fabulously ex- time German scientists were deter-pensive (£700 for it, and many other mined that it should not leave the coun-fossils), though today it probably seems try (although now it is in East Germanyquite a bargain for such an unusual and more difficult to see than the Eng-specimen. lish specimen). Fossils continue to be found in the Bavarian quarries, but itControversy raged over Archaeopteryx, was not until 1956 that another fossil bird was found. This time the specimen as the fossil bird was was so badly preserved that it was not recognized as an Archaeopteryx. The Was another called, but gradually Archaeopteryx experts began to be- ever found?. lieve that it was in-deed a very ancient bird. Anyone whohad any doubts about this first speci-men thought twice when in 1877 a sec-ond Archaeopteryx was discovered in26

owner of the quarry happened to show it to a visiting geologist two years later, who realized that although it was not as good as the first two, it was still extremely important. The owner of the quarry presented the third Archaeop- teryx to Erlangen University. In the same quarries at Solnhofen Have flying where the Archaeop- reptiles been teryx fossils were found? found, flying reptiles had also been found. These were known as pterosaurs - and most of them were small, ranging from sparrow- to crow-sized. It was not until some time after the discovery of the fossil birds that the huge flying dragon-the pterodactyl-was found in North America. At first many people thought the birds must be descended from the flying reptiles, but Thomas Huxley (a friend of Darwin's) and others correctly believed them to havePTERODACTYL evolved quite separately. The most significant event connected with the flying reptiles was probably created in 1908 by Herr Wanderer, a German paleontologist, when he de- cided that the pterosaurs must have been warm-blooded, furry animals. He came to this decision after studying their way of life - if they were scaly and cold-blooded, like other reptiles, they would not be able to fly for hours over the sea. The suggestion seemed outrageous to many scientists. Although it is impossible to prove that they were warm-blooded, since Wanderer sug- gested that pterosaurs had hair, scien- tists have found the imprint left by hair 27

in the rocks surrounding fossil ptero- had living young. How long was it be-saurs. Many things are still unknown fore the babies could fly? Presumably,about these giants of the air. Did they the parents fed them while they werelay eggs? If so, did they brood their growing. These and many other ques-young, like birds, or leave them, like tions may never be adequately an-most other reptiles? Or perhaps they swered. lchthyosaurs were reptiles that took to the water. In shape they were very similar to certain fish, dolphins, and porpoises.Many ichthyosaurs (their name means which fetpales were giving birth to their living young. Being completely aquatic Why are fish-lizards) have and yet air-breathing, like porpoises and ichthyosaurs been found at Lyme dolphins, the ichthyosaurs had to give well-preserved? Regis in southern birth to babies that were fully developed England. Since they and able to breathe at once. Ichthyo- saurs have also been found in which thelived in and near shallow seas, well-pre- remains of their last meal have also been fossilized; and others have beenserved specimens have often been found found with pieces of their skin fossilized.and most museums possess well-pre- In appearance, some of the ichthyo-served ichthyosaurs. Some are partic-ularly interesting - for instance, inGermany, specimens were found in28

saurs were very similar to modem ones, there was Eurhinosaurus, whichdolphins, which are mammals. This is looked like a swordfish. Unrelated tobecause both ichthyosaurs and dolphins the ichthyosaurs were the plesiosaurs.developed from four-legged animals They were also reptiles that had re-and fed on cuttlefish and other fish. turned to the sea. Like the ichthyosaurs,Their feet are used as paddles, the body their legs were changed into paddles, but they had long necks and short tails.Mythical dragons may have been plesiosaurs. There were also short-necked plesio- saurs that had massive skulls. Bothis streamlined, and they have many groups of plesiosaurs were fearsomesmall teeth, which helps them to hold predators. One of the largest plesiosaurstheir slippery food. was Elasmosaurus, which lived during the Cretaceous Period. This was nearly 46 feet long - but a large part of this length was its neck, which contained 76 vertebrae (neck bones) . No other animal, living or extinct, is known to possess so many. Fossil plesiosaurs have been known for hundreds of years - in the past they were often described as dragons. It has been suggested that the type of dragon Siegfried and other notable dragon-slay- ers fought was based on fossil plesio- saurs - they had long snakelike necks and the front paddles were thought to be wings. When fossils were discovered by chance in quarries, they would have been preserved in the monasteries and palaces as the bones of dragons. This is possibly how the legends about dragons started. There is really no such thing as aThe largest ichthyosaur known is Lep- What are \"living fossil.\" The t opt erg y i us, living fossils? expression is used,Which is the ·largest whieh had a skull however, to describe over seven feetichthyosaur? animals that are close relatives of ani-long and a total length of more than mals known from fossils millions of36 feet. The ichthyosaurs varied inshape. Apart from the dolphin-shaped years old. Perhaps the most famous of all 29

pouches, are found only in Australia. · Elsewhere, although they were once common, they have become extinct. The duck-billed platypus and the spiny ant- eater (or echidna) are even more prim- itive and are the only mammals that lay eggs. They are found only in Aus- tralia, New Guinea, and Tasmania. Nearby is another famous \"living fossil,\" the tuatara, a lizardlike reptile living on islands near New Zealand. ItThe coelacanth was thought to be completely ex- Living fossils. The animals of Australia and Newtinct until one was caught in the Indian Ocean. Zealand have been separated from the rest of the world for a long time and are often similar to animals long extinct in other parts of the world.\"living fossils\" is the coelacanth, whichwas once knowri only from fossilsdating from Cretaceous times, and wasthought to have been extinct for over136 million years. Then one was caughtby fishermen in the Indian Ocean. Thefind caused a stir in scientific circles;scientists were able to examine first-hand an animal they thought they wouldnever see alive. Subsequently, severalother::; have been caught from time totime, and some are preserved and canbe seen in museums.Many Australian animals are described Why are Australian as \"living fos- animals so special? sils.\" Australia has been cut offfrom the rest of the world longer thanthe other parts have been from eachother. Many of the animals found thereare very primitive and related to specieslong since extinct in other parts of theworld. Apart from a few living in Amer-ica, marsupials, or mammals with30 FAT-TAILED MARSUPIAL MOUSE

has remained virtually unchanged since The People Who its closest relatives walked the earth Studied Fossils back in the Jurassic era some 150 mil- lion years ago. Similarly, crocodiles Fossils have been found way back into have remained more or less unchanged for millions of years. history. In an- When were fossils . . · The ginkgo is a tree that during the flirst stud.1ed?. c1ent times they Cretaceous Period was found all over the world; today, though, it is -found were thought to only as a wild tree in east~rn China. It can often be seen in parks and gardens. be magical, as some primitive peopleYAPOK, OR WATER OPOSSUM still do. And 2,500 years ago, in the sixth century B.c., ancient Greek sci- entists discussed fossils and wondered how it was that animals that normally lived at the bottom of the sea were found high and dry in quarries. Famous Greeks like Herodotus and Pausanius decided that the sea must once have covered the land. The Romans, too, were aware that the sea had once cov- ered the land - though they probably merely repeated what the Greeks had discovered. But after the fall of the Roman Empire, scientific studies of any sort were forgotten in Europe, as first the barbarians conquered Europe and then the Christian Church tried to prevent the study of anything it considered heretic. In particular, experiments were discouraged. Fortunately, the Arabs translated many Greek books. In the period known as the Renaissance, Eu- ropean scientists once and for all broke away from the restrictions of the Church and talked about Greek literature, which had been preserved by the Arabs, and once more started making careful scientific experiments. 31

logical map of England - the variouscolors of the geological map indicatedthe types of rocks found. Another important discovery madeby William Smith followed from whatSteno had found. William found thatdifferent kinds of fossils were oftenfound in the same order within thestrata (or layers) of the rocks. He foundI~ that some sorts of fossils were always found at the bottom of the rocks whileothers were at the top, and so on. Healso realiz_ed that the type of fossilfound . in a rock was ·a good way ofknowing wh~t kind of rock it was. From. all his notes, William was able to draw~he first g~ological column, in which allth. e..rock.·s. are combined into a chart that ·.' ..has the\"'oldest rocks at. the bottom and Mary Anning collected many fossil reptiles .the newest at the top. This was the startof the science called stratigraphy. Wil- Soon Mary was so good at fossilliam Smith continued his studies of geol- hunting that she often went by herself,ogy wherever he went until he died in and in 1811 she found an ichthyosaurNorthampton at the age of 70. bone. Neither she nor her father knewI what it was at the time, but it was put Over 150 years ago a man named on sale in the shop. Fortunately, it was 1 Richard Anning bought by Sir Everard Home while he Who ·was the most owned a souve- was vacationing at Lyme Regis. He was the king's physician and also the pro- famous woman nir shop in Lyme fossil hunter? Regis. People .fessor of anatomy at London Univer-were.just beginning to enjoy bathing in sity; But even he ·was not certain whatthe .se~ and it was a popular resort. In the bone was. After much thought, hehis shop Richard Anning sold all the published a description of it in 1819usual souvenirs, and also_ some objects ·and announced that it came from ahe found along the beach, such as sea · giant salamander. Later it was realizedurchins, starfishes, shells, and fossils. that it was a reptile - the ichthyosaur.Richard Anning noticed that the fossils, Mary continued to find bones, somesuch as ammonites, were particularly of which were bought by the Britishpopular, and so he and his daughter Museum, and by the time she was 21Mary collected them along the cliffs she was not only a full-time dealer inaround Lyme Regis. fossils, but she was quite . an expert34

on them. Having discovered the first In trying to decide what his extinct rep- ichthyosaur at Lyme Regis, she went What did tile looked like in on to discover the first plesiosaurs, and life, Gideon Man- in 1828 she found a well-preserved fly- Mantell's reptile ing reptile. look like? tell compared the bones with those .\ ~.--:­ of living iguanas. He decided that they~) ~· ... Gideon Mantell was a country doctor were fairly similar. Unfortunately, he Have fossil living in Le'Yes in · was wrong, but the name Iguanodon footprints ever Sussex. He used to has stuck, and several interesting pic- been found? enjoy walking .and tures and models of the mighty animal often walked to see came into being. his patients instead of riding a horse; Mantell wrote a book called Won- and he would search the embankments ders of Geology, which became a best and quarries he passed for fossils. He seller. He commissioned the famous ar- also managed to get his wife ·interested .tist John Martin to illustrate Iguanodon. in some of the strange objects .he found .John Martin was well-known for his ·on his walks. ·In 1822 Mrs. Mantell · massive paintings portraying scenes astonished her husband by findillg some . .from the Bible - such as the Day of teeth he was unable to identify; .:After · .:. Judgment-and ·his particular version looking at them carefully, Gideon Man- of lguanodon looked something like a tell decided to send them to a famous fantastic dragon with an enormous ·tail - anatomist, Baron Cuvier in Paris. Even and stumpy legs. Cuvier was baffled by the teeth. Heiden- When the Great Exhibition (which tified them as belonging to a rhinoceros. later became known .as the Crystal Meanwhile, back in England, Gideon Palace) opened, Waterhouse Hawkins had also discovered some enormous designed a whole series of models of footprints in the rock. He did not realize fossils, including two of lguanodon. that these footprints were made by the These were made from concrete and owner of the teeth he had found, but he were life-sized. They still exist today, then found some bones that he felt cer- with many others, on an island in a lake tain came from the same animal as the in a park in Sydenham, London. Before teeth. These bones were in Cretaceous the models were finished, a dinner party strata. Baron Cuvier was still baffled- was held inside the belly of one of the . he thought the new bones might belong iguanodons, to which Sir Richard Owen to some sort of hippopotamus. Then, and other important scientists of the more or less together, Baron Cuvier and day were invited. Gideon Mantell decided that the bones It was not until half a century later, and teeth came from some kind of ex- however, that it was realized that tinct giant reptile. But it was a long time lguanodon was not a clumsy four- before the bones were connected with footed reptile, but a graceful beast that the fossil footprints. walked on its hind legs. The \"horns,\" 35

The dinner party inside the (inaccurate) model of /guanodon at Crystal Palace An lguanodon \which earlier artists had put on its nose, In 1831, a young man by the namewere actually on its thumbs. of Charles RobertAnimals are always changmg. Each Who was the Darwin had just left first to collect Cambridge Univer- What is generation is slightly evolutionary sity. His family hoped · evolution? different from the next. evidence? he would become a You can see this by priest, but Charles was really interestedlooking at your friends, their parents, only in natural history, and so he wasand grandparents. Although they are overjoyed when he was offered a chanceoften very like their parents, there are to go on a trip around the world aboardalways some slight differences. In na- the H.M.S. Beagle. The purpose of theture, animals and plants also vary, and voyage 'was to make charts, study as-some will be better than others at surviv- tronomy, and make various other sur- ~eys of natural ·history, geology and soing. Those that survive will pass onsome characteristics to their offspring, forth. Charles Darwin was to be thewhether it is a seed, an egg, or a baby. naturalist.. The offspring that inherit these char- It was from numerous observationsacteristics will also be better at surviv- that he made on this trip, particularlying. Thus, gradually, the appearance of in the Galapagos Island&, that Charlesan animal or plant may change. Darwin eventually developed his theory36

of evolution. Just as he was about to \"evolve,\" and that they were not a spe- give a lecture on his ideas, it was real- cial creation. Although Charles Darwin ized that another naturalist, Alfred was a religious man (and nearly be- Russel Wallace, who had been in the came a priest), the scientific world soon East Indies, had made exactly the same became divided and the supporters of discoveries about evolution. So they Darwin were regarded as irreligious by wrote the lecture together, and it was many. It was to be a long struggle be- given by Sir Joseph Hooker, the Direc- fore evolution gained general accept- tor of the Kew Botanic Gardens. Al- ance. But now zoologists recognize though scientists were very ,·interested evolution as a fact, although Darwin's in the new theory, it did not get very original theory has been modified, as much publicity. more has been learned about subjects such as genetics (the modern science A year later, in 1859, Darwin pub- · that deals with the little differences in lished a book, On the Origin of Species each animal that are passed on to off- by Means of Natural Selection, in spring) which Darwin had never even which he explained in more detail how heard of. all animals and plants were constantly struggling to survive and that only the Thomas Henry Huxley was a brilliant fittest could survive. Who was lecturer, and right from The book was sold out on the day of \"Darwin's the start he supported publication, but it was still only gradu- bulldog\"? Charles Darwin's ideas. ally that the public took an interest in Darwin himself did not Darwin's theories. Slowly people recog- nized he was saying that all species like to appear in public, as he was ratherWhile in the Galapagos Islands, Charles Darwin studied shy. He liked arguments even less thanthe animals that later led to his theories of evolution. public appearances, as he was an ex- tremely kind and gentle man. Thomas Huxley, on the other hand, seemed to enjoy a good debate. In nearly all of the arguments it was Thomas Huxley who spoke out for Darwin - and so became known as \"Darwin's Bulldog.\" Huxley's principal opponent was Bishop Samuel Wilber- force - also a good speaker, and very good at tying his opponents up in knots; in fact, he was so good that he was known as \"Soapy Sam.\" But Soapy Sam was no match for Huxley. Through try- ing to be too clever at a public debate in Oxford, Soapy Sam said some silly 37

things that allowed Huxley to win animportant argument. Gradually, good sense prevailed -particularly since evolution made it somuch easier to explain things like fos-sils and the changes in the earth's shape-but for those who believed that everyword in the Bible was true, it was diffi-cult, if not impossible, to believe.Cope and Marsh. The two names are Who were the among the most most famous fossil famous of all collectors in the American pale- United States? ontologists, and yet they were Edward Cope continued collecting fossils even during thebitter enemies for most of their lives - Indian Wars. The Indians regarded him as a friend.and even after they were dead! father died, Edward inherited a large fortune. . Edward Cope used all his Edward Cope was born in 1840 and . wealth to finance his collecting trips and to buy any other fossils that came on. was interested in natural history from the market. It was while he was in Kan- sas that Edward Cope first met Othnielan early age. Although his father Marsh.wanted him to take up farming, Ed- Othniel Marsh was the son of a farmer. The family was not particularlyward eventually persuaded him to allow well off, but his uncle, George Peabody, became one of the wealthiest men in the .him to study anatomy. He read Dar- country. Uncle George gave consider- able money to charity, and also paidwin's books, and then at the outbreak for the education of his nephew. He also ~ncouraged Othniel's interest in naturalof the Civil War he went to Europe to history, and even before ·Othniel went to the university he had been writingstudy. By the time he returned to the to Louis Agassiz,· a famous professor · at Harvard University. After OthnielUnited States he was a firm believer in M~rsh acquired his degree at Yale, he rapidly rose to be a professor - noDarwin's theory of evolution, and he doubt helped by George Peabody's gen- erous donations to the university. Marshbecame a zoology professor at a smallcollege. It looked as if he was going tolead a very quiet life - . but then sud-denly he gave up his job, sold all hisproperty, and traveled west to look forfossils. He took seven assistants, some wag-ons, and a mule train, and set off acrossKansas, although the area was full ofhostile Indians. His fossil hunting wasvery successful and soon his home inPhiladelphia was overflowing. When his38

ommg, and Nebraska. Marsh's team was able to collect many fossils. Marsh wanted that exclusive right. When other scientists or collectors tried to start ex- cavations, Marsh would simply offer workmen more money to work for him, and offer a higher price for all speci- mens. When Edward Cope came along it was a different matter. Although he was not as wealthy as Marsh, Cope could still afford to pay similar prices. The race was on. Railroad workers, farmers, soldiers,Othniel Marsh and Edward Cope argued constantly What was the teachers, children-and tried to prevent each o ther from collecting foss ils. \"Battle of in fact, anyone whobecame the world's first full-time pro- the Bones\"? could recognize afessor of paleontology, and with UncleGeorge's money founded what became fossil - made money as Marsh andone of the most important natural his-tory museums in the world - the Pea- Cope tried to outbid each other. In nextbody Museum in New Haven. LikeEdward Cope, Othniel was sent to Eu- to no time the two men were accusingrope to study during the Civil War andwhile he was there he bought numerous each other of all sorts of trickery, andfossils which he sent back to the states. Edward Cope even accused Marsh of \ getting his workmen to .smash any fos-Upon his return, Othniel Marsh set off on a series of well- sils they could not carry - just to keep What did the organized collecting Cope from getting them. Marsh then Indians think of pored through all the articles written by fossil collectors? trips. In the course Cope and published a list of the mis- of these, he became takes Cope had made. Cope replied byfriendly with Chief Red Cloud of theSioux Indians, and even during the claiming that Marsh did not do any ofSioux war of 1876, when General Cus-ter's army was massacred, the Indians the work himself but used his wealth tostill remained friendly with OthnielMarsh and the other scientists who were pay other people to do the work for him.collecting fossils in South Dakota, Wy- The long and bitter quarrel between Othniel Marsh and Edward Cope lasted throughout their lifetime and became known as the \"Battle of the Bones.\" It really got under way in 1877, when a schoolteacher sent Marsh a giant ver- tebra (backbone) that he had found in Colorado. For some reason, Marsh did not get around to replying, and so when more bones turned up, the school- 39

teacher sent some to Cope. As soon as Marsh heard that Cope was interested, he bought the entife collection, includ- ing the ones Cope had. After other simi- · lar events, Marsh thought he had the field to himself, because Edward Cope had run out of money. I'1Edward Cope became a paleontologist How did the with the U.S. Geo- \"Battle of the logical Survey. But in Bones\" end? 1879, Marsh was cre- ated chief paleontolo-gist and took all the best specimens forthe museums where he was curator. In 1899, Cope tried to prevent Marshfrom being reelected president of ageological society. Marsh retaliated bypersuading the U.S. Department ofthe Interior to order Cope to hand At National Dinosaur Monument remains of fos- sil dinosaurs are left partly embedded in rockover all the fossils to the National Mu- so that visitors can see how they were found.seum in Washington-where Marshwas curator. This was the last straw! Cope got to-gether with a friend who worked on theNew York Herald and published a seriesof sensational articles accusing govern-ment departments of corruption and ex-travagance, saying that under Marsh'sinfluence the best jobs in museums andin the Academy were going to the sonsof wealthy businessmen in order to getmoney from their parents. The outcomewas that the U.S. Congress investigatedboth Cope's and Marsh's claims. Copewas allowed to keep his fossils, butthe government also decided that nomore public money should be spent onpaleontology. In 1897 Cope died, and by that timeMarsh had managed to use up his vast40

fortune and had become a professor at Yale. Two years later Marsh died, but from beyond the grave Cope \"won'' the Battle of the Bones when his friend Henry Osborn took over Marsh's old job as chief paleontologist with the Geological Survey. Henry Osborn went on an expedition Where is the to collect <lino- National Dinosaur saurs in Colo- Monument? rado which was financed by an- other wealthy benefactor of museums, Andrew Carnegie. While walking with his assistant, Henry Osborn noticed rocks jutting out of the ground - some of which were as tall as a man. He and his assistant realized suddenly that they were looking at the leg bone of a dino- saur. When excavated, the bone provedHenry Osborn's party discovered nests to be part of a Diplodocus, one of theof fossil dinosaur eggs in Mongolia. largest dinosaurs to have walked the earth. A huge part of Colorado and Utah was created a National Park in 1955 and is known as the National ·Dinosaur Monument. The public can .see partly excavated dinosaurs in the ground, just as they were found. Henry Osborn went on to have a long What else did and distinguished career in paleontol- Henry Osborn discover? ogy. Another of his more famous discov- eries was made while he was on an· expedition to the Gobi Desert in Mon- golia. Dinosaur eggs were found in the desert - even whole nests full. Some of the eggs showed tooth marks where early mammals had tried to open them. 41

in 1953, three British scientists tested the bits of bone, using modern equip- ment. They found that Piltdown man was made up from the skull of a mod- ern man and an ape's jaw with filed- down teeth! Piltdown man was a fake! At a small village named Pikermi, close to Athens, Greece, Why is the one of the largest village of collections of fossil Pikermi famous? . mammal bones was discovered. In 1835, a British antique collector discovered a handful of bones while searching for ancient Greek vases Piltdown man \"discovered\" in Eng- and sculptures. A little later, a soldier land was later shown to be a forgery. serving with the troops of Otto Von Wittelsbach (the German who was kingwith those of animals living in the Pleis- of Greece at the time) also found sometocene Epoch. This proved beyond alldoubt that the fossil men lived long ago. bones. Among the bones found by theNeanderthal man (as the fossil man firstfound in Neander has become known) soldier was what he thought was ahas since been found in many parts ofEurope, and scientists have even been human skull with diamonds filling theable to deduce how he lived. cracks in the bone. Back in Germany this soldier boasted to his friends about his find, and eventually the police found out. He was arrested as a grave rob- ber, but the police were not convincedPiltdown man is one of the most famous that the diamonds were genuine and of all fossil men - called for expert advice. When scien- Why is Piltdown but he never ex- man famous? tists looked at. the skull, they agreed isted. In 1912 sev- that the crystals were not diamonds.eral pieces of skull were found near the But they'were much more interested invillage of Piltdown in Kent, not far th~ skull - they realized that it was anfrom London. When they were recon- ape, not human, and that it dated fromstructed, the skull was found to have the Tertiary Period. This was the oldestbelonged to a primitive man with an known fossil ape.apelike jaw. As time went on and dif- Soon fossil hunters from all overferent fossil men were discovered in Europe flocked to Pikermi-which wasother parts of the world, it was realized a good place to spend leisure time inthat the Piltdown man was quite strange the sun while lookfog for fossils. Theyand unlike any other fossil men. Then, found lots of bones, many of which 44I.

Peking men around a campfire with some of the animals they have killed.were from animals similar to those One of the most spectacular discov-found in Africa today. The only diffi- eries was in Moravia, Czechoslovakia.culty was that the bones were mostly Here the bones of over one thousandmixed up, as they had been washed mammoths of various sizes were found.down a river. The Stone Age men probably captured them by digging pits across tracks usedThe Stone Age men often hunted fairly by the mammoths and covering them over with branches. Hunting large ani-How do we large animals, and mals, such as rhinoceros, bears, andknow what the remains of these wild boar, was often dangerous, andfossil men ate? animals have some- some'.of the bones of Stone Age men are times been preserved . scarred where they have been attacked. But Stone Age men were hardy, andaround the camps where fossil men even bad wounds would usually heal.lived. Some of the bones were burnt, To the north of Lyons in Franct? is a ··site where Stone Age man hunted wildshowing that they had been cooked and horses. There is a cliff over a thousandeaten by men; other bones were cracked 45open so that the marrow could be ex-tracted and eaten.

The ancestors of modern man hunted mammoths. Herethey have driven one into a swamp to kill it. .feet high, on top of which is a grassy . ~)/,I'..-.-----.-\" ,· \plain that slopes away in the distance.The Stone Age men drove the horses , {lover the edge, where they fell to therocks below. Scientists have calculatedthat as many as 100,000 ·horses mayhave been killed here.In 1879 a little girl named Maria San- Were fossil tuola wandered into a men artistic? passage of the caves at Altamira in north-ern Spain and suddenly saw enormouspaintings of bulls. She told her father,and when he saw·the.se and many othermagnificent colored paintings of wild46

animals, he realized that they were Fossils are constantly being formed.ancient. He thought they had probablybeen painted by Stone Age men, and Every single animalreported the discovery to experts, but When were the or plant that dies they did not believe the paintings werevery old. It was to be many years be- most recent could become a fos-fore Seiior Santuola was indeed provedright: the paintings were the work of fossils formed?Stone Age men. sil but, of course, The most famous cave paintingsare those at Lascaux in southwestern only a few actually do. Those living inFrance. Unfortunately, the public can-not .go in very often, as the air from tropical forests are quickly destroyedpeople breathing and the lights they usemakes green algae (microscopic plants) - ants and other insects soon eat anygrow on the rocks, and the algae wasbeginning to spoil the pictures. In order dread creature;s - but those living into preserve the paintings, visitors are·allowed in the caves only occasionally. swamps, bogs, and similar places may well become fossilized in the same way · that other plants and animals did mil- lions of years ago. One of the best places to s1~e fossils in the making is in a peat bog. Peat is the remains of plants. ·Near the top they are fresh, but ten or twenty feet down the remains of pl~nts are hundreds of years -old. Eventually · a fossil like coal would form.Early men painted pictures of the animals they hunted on the walls of caves. 47

Amber, 23, 24 Index Amphibians, 11, 12 · Anning, Mary, 34, 35 Lascaux Caves, 47 Apatosaurus, 24 Living fossils, 29-30 Apemen, 42, 44 Archaeopteryx, 26, 27 Mammals, 16 Mammoths, 22-3 Brachiosaurus, 25 Mantell, Gideon, 35 Marsh, Othniel, 38-41 Cambrian Period, 7, 10 Men, fossil, 43-4 Carboniferous Period, 12 Miocene Epoch, 17, 42 Coal, 12, 20 Mollusks, 10 Coelacanth, 29-30 Cope, Edward, 38-41 Neanderthal man, 43-4 Cretaceous Period, 15, 29, 30, 35 Cro-Magnon man, 42 Oil, 20, 21 Olduvai Gorge, 42-3 Darwin, Charles, 36-7 Oligocene Epoch, 17 Deluge, 32 Ordovician Period, 10 Devonian Period, 11 Osborn, Henry, 41 Dinosaurs, 14, 15, 24-5,.41 Diplodocus, 24, 41 Paleocene Epoch, 16 Dragons, 29 Paleontologists, 7 Permian Period, 13 Echidna, 30 Pikermi, 44 Echinoderms, 10 Piltdown man, 44 Eggs, 41 Pleistocene Epoch, 19 Elasmosaurus, 29 Plesiosaurs, 29, 35 Eocene Epoch, 16 Precambrian Period, 10 Evolution, 36-8 Pterosaurs, 27, 28· Fishes, Age of, 11 Reptiles, Age of, 15 Footprints, 35 Silurian Period, 11 Ginkgo tree, 31 Smilodon, 21 Glossopetrae, 32-3 Smith, William, 33, 34 Stone A&e, 45-7 Holocene Epoch, 19 Strata, 7, 33-4 Ice Age, 19 Tar pits, 21 Ichthyosaurs, 28-9, 34-5 Triassic Period, 15 lguanodon, 35-6 Trilobite, 10 Tuatara, 30 Jurassic Period, 15, 26 Woolly rhino, 23 48



Produced and approved by noted authorities, thesebooks answer the questions most often asked aboutscience, nature and history. They are presented in aclear, readable style; and contain many colorful andinstructive illustrations. Readers will want to exploreeach of these fasciriating subjects and collect thesevolumes as an authentic, ready-reference, basic library.5001 DINOSAURS 5032 DOGS I5002 WEATHER 5033 PREHISTORIC MAMMALS5004 ROCKS & MINERALS .5007 INSECTS5008 REPTILES 5034 SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS5009 BIRDS5011 BEGINNING SCIENCE 5042 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION5013 THE HUMAN BODY5014 SEA SHELl,.S 5046 MAGNETS AND MAGNETISM5016 THE MICROSCOPE5021 CHEMISTRY 5053 TREES '5022 HORSES5024 PRIMITIVE MAN 5055 NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS5031 WILD FLOWERS 5064 STARS 5065 AIRPLANES AND THE STORY OF FLIGHJ 5066 FISH 5069 TRAINS AND SHIPS 5070 EGOLOGY AND OTHER TITLES