Buffalo Land / Authentic Account of the Discoveries, Adventures, and Mishaps of a Scientific and Sporting Party in the Wild West

by W. E. Webb

But this is the least interesting of the peculiarities presented by these rocks. On the level surfaces, denuded of soil, lie huge oyster-shells, some opened and others with both valves together, like remnants of a half-finished meal of some titanic race, who had been frightened from the board, never to return. These shells are not thickened like most of those of past periods, but contained an animal which would have served as a meal for a large party of men. One of them measured twenty-six inches across.

If the explorer searches the bottoms of the rain-washes and ravines, he will doubtless come upon the fragment of a tooth or jaw, and will generally find a line of such pieces leading to an elevated position on the bank or bluff, where lies the skeleton of some monster of the ancient sea. He may find the vertebral column running far into the limestone that locks him in his last prison; or a paddle extended on the slope, as though entreating aid; or a pair of jaws lined with horrid teeth which grin despair on enemies they are helpless to resist. Or he may find a conic mound, on whose apex glisten in the sun the bleached bones of one whose last office has been to preserve from destruction the friendly soil on which he reposed. Sometimes a pile of huge remains will be discovered, which the dissolution of the rock has deposited on the lower level, the force of rain and wash having been insufficient to carry them away.

But the reader inquires, What is the nature of these creatures thus left stranded a thousand miles from either ocean? How came they in the limestones of Kansas, and were they denizens of land or sea? It may be replied that our knowledge of this chapter of ancient history is only about five years old, and has been brought to light by geological explorations set on foot by Dr. Turner, Prof. Mudge, Prof. Marsh, W. E. Webb, and the writer. Careful examinations of the remains discovered show that they are all to be referred to the reptiles and fishes. We find that they lived in the period called Cretaceous, at the time when the chalk of England and the green sand marl of New Jersey were being deposited, and when many other huge reptiles and fishes peopled both sea and land in those quarters of the globe. The twenty-six species of reptiles found in Kansas, up to the present time, varied from ten to eighty feet in length, and represented six orders, the same that occur in the other regions mentioned. Two only of the number were terrestrial in their habits, and three were flyers; the remainder were inhabitants of the salt ocean. When they swam over what are now the plains, the coast-line extended from Arkansas to near Fort Riley, on the Kansas River, and, passing a little eastward, traversed Minnesota to the British Possessions, near the head of Lake Superior. The extent of sea to the westward was vast, and geology has not yet laid down its boundary; it was probably a shore now submerged beneath the waters of the North Pacific Ocean.

Far out on its expanse might have been seen in those ancient days, a huge snake-like form which rose above the surface and stood erect, with tapering throat and arrow-shaped head; or swayed about, describing a circle of twenty feet radius above the water. Then it would dive into the depths, and naught would be visible but the foam caused by the disappearing mass of life. Should several have appeared together, we can easily imagine tall twining forms, rising to the height of the masts of a fishing fleet, or like snakes twisting and knotting themselves together. This extraordinary neck, for such it was, rose from a body of elephantine proportions; and a tail of the serpent pattern balanced it behind. The limbs were probably two pairs of paddles, like those of Plesiosaurus, from which this diver chiefly differed in the arrangement of the bones of the breast. In the best known species, twenty-two feet represent the neck, in a total length of fifty feet.

This is the Elasmosaurus platyurus (Cope), a carnivorous sea reptile, no doubt adapted for deeper waters than many of the others. Like the snake-bird of Florida, it probably often swam many feet below the surface, raising the head to the distant air for a breath, then withdrawing it and exploring the depths forty feet below, without altering the position of its body. From the localities in which the bones have been found in Kansas, it must have wandered far from land, and that many kinds of fishes formed its food, is shown by the teeth and scales found in the position of its stomach.

A second species, of somewhat similar character and habits, differed very much in some points of structure. The neck was drawn out to a wonderful degree of attenuation, while the tail was relatively very stout, more so, indeed, than in the Elasmosaurus, as though to balance the anterior regions while occupied in various actions, e. g., while capturing its food. This was a powerful swimmer, its paddles measuring four feet in length, with an expanse, therefore, of about eleven feet. It is known as Polycotylus latipinnis (Cope).

The two species just described formed a small representation, in our great interior sea, of an order which swarmed at the same time, or near it, over the gulfs and bays of old Europe. There they abounded twenty to one. Perhaps one reason for this was the almost entire absence of the real rulers of the waters of Ancient America, viz: the Pythonomorphs. These sea-serpents, for such they were, embrace more than half the species found in the limestone rocks in Kansas, and abound in those of New Jersey and Alabama. Only four have been seen as yet in Europe.

Researches into their structure have shown that they were of wonderful elongation of form, especially of tail; that their heads were large, flat, and conic, with eyes directed partly upwards; that they were furnished with two pairs of paddles like the flippers of a whale, but with short or no portion representing the arm. With these flippers and the eel-like strokes of their flattened tail they swam—some with less, others with greater speed. They were furnished, like snakes, with four rows of formidable teeth on the roof of the mouth. Though these were not designed for mastication, and without paws for grasping could have been little used for cutting, as weapons for seizing their prey they were very formidable. And here we have to consider a peculiarity of these creatures in which they are unique among animals. Swallowing their prey entire, like snakes, they were without that wonderful expansibility of throat, due in the latter to an arrangement of levers supporting the lower jaw. Instead of this each half of that jaw was articulated or jointed at a point nearly midway between the ear and the chin. This was of the ball and socket type, and enabled the jaw to make an angle outward, and so widen, by much, the space inclosed between it and its fellow. The arrangement may be easily imitated by directing the arms forward, with the elbows turned outward and the hands placed near together. The ends of these bones were in the Pythonomorphs as independent as in the serpents, being only bound by flexible ligaments. By turning the elbows outward, and bending them, the space between the arms becomes diamond-shaped, and represents exactly the expansion seen in these reptiles, to permit the passage of a large fish or other body. The arms, too, will represent the size of jaws attained by some of the smaller species. The outward movement of the basal half of the jaw necessarily twists in the same direction the column-like bone to which it is suspended. The peculiar shape of the joint by which the last bone is attached to the skull, depends on the degree of twist to be permitted, and, therefore, to the degree of expansion of which the jaws were capable. As this differs much in the different species, they are readily distinguished by the column or "quadrate" bone when found. There are some curious consequences of this structure, and they are here explained as an instance of the mode of reconstruction of extinct animals from slight materials. The habit of swallowing large bodies between the branches of the under-jaw necessitates the prolongation forward of the mouth of the gullet; hence the throat in the Pythonomorphs must have been loose and almost as baggy as a pelican's. Next, the same habit must have compelled the forward position of the glottis or opening of the windpipe, which is always in front of the gullet. Hence these creatures must have uttered no other sound than a hiss, as do animals of the present day which have a similar structure, as for instance, the snakes. Thirdly, the tongue must have been long and forked and for this reason: its position was still anterior to the glottis, so that there was no space for it except it were inclosed in a sheath beneath the windpipe when at rest, or thrown out beyond the jaws when in motion. Such is the arrangement in the nearest living forms, and it is always, in these cases, cylindric and forked.

The flying saurians of the cretaceous sea of Kansas, though not numerous in species, were of remarkable size. Though their remains are generally flattened by the pressure of the overlying rocks, two species have left a complete record of their form and dimensions. One of them (Ornithochirus Tarpyia) spread eighteen feet between the tips of the wings, while the O. umbrosus covered nearly twenty-five feet with his expanse. These strange creatures flapped their leathery wings over the waves, and, often plunging, drew many a fish from its companions of the shoal; or, soaring at a safe distance, viewed the sports and combats of the more powerful saurians of the sea; or, trooping to the shore at nightfall, suspended themselves to the cliffs by the claw-bearing fingers of their wing-limbs.