As we remarked before, the carnivorous Dinosaurs were the lions and tigers of the Mesozoic era, and, what with small mammals and numerous reptiles of those days, it would seem that they were not limited in their choice of diet.
It is a question not yet decided whether Dinosaurs laid eggs as most modern reptiles do, or were viviparous like quadrupeds; but Professor Marsh thinks there are reasons for the latter supposition.
During the early part of the Mesozoic era, at the period known as the Triassic (New Red Sandstone), Dinosaurs flourished vigorously in America, developing a great variety of forms and sizes. Although but few of their bones have as yet been discovered in those rocks, they have left behind unmistakable evidence of their presence in the well-known footprints and other impressions upon the shores of the waters which they frequented.[13] The Triassic Sandstone of the Connecticut Valley has long been famous for its fossil footprints, especially the so-called “bird-tracks,” which are generally supposed to have been made by birds, the tracks of which they certainly appear to resemble. But a careful investigation of nearly all the specimens yet discovered has convinced Professor Marsh that these fossil impressions were not made by birds (see [Fig. 14]). Most of the three-toed tracks, he thinks, were made by Dinosaurs, who usually walked upon their hind feet alone, and only occasionally put to the ground their small fore limbs. He has detected impressions of the latter in connection with nearly all the larger tracks of the hind limbs. These double impressions are just such as Dinosaurs would make; and, since the only characteristic bones yet found in the same rocks belong to this order of reptiles, it is but fair to attribute all these footprints to Dinosaurs, even where no impressions of fore feet have been detected, until some evidence of birds is forthcoming. The size of some of these impressions, as well as the length of stride they indicate, is against the idea of their having been made by birds. Some of them, for instance, are twenty inches in length, and four or five feet apart! The foot of the African ostrich is but ten inches long, so we must fall back on the Dinosaurs for an explanation. However, it is quite possible that some of the smaller impressions were made by birds.
[13] Since the above was written, Professor Marsh has described, in The American Journal of Science for June, 1892, several more or less complete skeletons of Triassic Dinosaurs, lately found, and now in the Yale College Museum. This is an important discovery.
Fig. 14.—Portion of a slab of New Red Sandstone, from Turner’s Falls, Massachusetts, U.S., covered with numerous tracks, probably of Dinosaurs. This specimen is now in the Natural History Museum. The separate tracks are indicated by the numbers. (After Hitchcock.)
There is at South Kensington a fine series of these and other specimens of fossil footprints (Gallery No. XI., Wall-cases 8-10). The surface of one large slab in the geological collection is eight feet by six feet, and bears upwards of seventy distinct impressions disposed in several tracks, as shown in [Fig. 14]. The lines were added by Dr. Hitchcock, who has published full descriptions in order to show the direction and disposition of the tracks.
