Page:Principal Characters of American Jurassic Dinosaurs; Part VI, Restoration of Brontosaurus.pdf/1

THE

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

[THIRD SERIES.]

Art. IX.—Principal Characters of American Jurassic Dinosaurs. Part VI: Restoration of Brontosaurus, (with plate I); by Professor O. C. Marsh.

In the previous articles of this series, the writer has given the more important characters of the order Sauropoda.^[1] A volume on this group is now in preparation, and the illustrations (90 plates) are nearly completed. One of these is a restoration of Brontosaurus, which has so many points of interest that a reduced figure is here presented. Several new characters of this group are added, some of which will be of interest to comparative anatomists.

Restoration of Brontosaurus, (Plate I.)

Nearly all the bones here represented belonged to a single individual, which when alive was nearly or quite fifty feet in length. The position here given was mainly determined by a careful adjustment of these remains. That the animal at times assumed a more erect position than here represented is probable, but locomotion on the posterior limbs alone was hardly possible. The head was remarkably small. The neck was long, and, considering its proportions, flexible, and was the lightest portion of the vertebral column. The body was quite short, and the abdominal cavity of moderate size. The legs and feet were massive, and the bones all solid. The feet were plantigrade,

1. This Journal, xvi, 417, Nov. 1878; xvii, 86, Jan. 1879; xxi, 417, May, 1881; and xxiii, 81, Jan. 1882.

Am. Jour. Sci.—Third Series, Vol. XXVI, No. 152.—August, 1883.

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