"Then there was a great toothed, diving creature with wings. They've named him the Hesperornis, which means 'western bird,' because the fossils of the best-known species were found in the chalk-beds of Kansas."]
In the great American inland sea of those days swam one kind of fierce fish-lizard that took such big bites he had to have a hinge in his jaw. Because of this hinge he could open his mouth wider without putting anything out of place, don't you see? He was called the Mesosaur. But he never bit the Archelon, who was in his crowd, because he couldn't. The Archelon was the king of turtles, and, like all the turtle family, wore heavy armor. He was over twelve feet long. And sharks--no end of them! A shark at his best is bad enough, but the sharks of those days were almost too terrible to think about. Such jaws! And teeth like railroad spikes! Then there was a great toothed diving creature with wings. They've named him the "Hesperornis," which means "western bird." He was given the name because the fossils of the best-known species were found in the chalk-beds of Kansas.
[Illustration: GREATEST OF ANCIENT FLYING MACHINES
Mr. Pterodactyl, on his way to dinner, looked like this. He was the largest of all flying-machines before the days of the Wright brothers. He would have measured--if there had been anybody to measure him--twenty feet across the wings! Like the Hesperornis, he always dined on fish.]
Over the waters flew another bird-like, fish-like, bat-like thing called the Pterodactyl. Look at his picture and you will see how he got his nickname. It means "finger-toe." He was the largest of all flying-machines until the days of the Wright brothers. It was over twenty feet across his wings, from tip to tip; and, like the Hesperornis, he always had fish for dinner.
[Illustration: A BIG "LITTLE FINGER" AND WHAT IT WAS FOR
Mr. Pterodactyl means "finger toe." What is our little finger was the longest of his five digits. It helped support and operate that big bat-like wing extending from his arms to his toes.]
The first monsters, like the first of almost everything else, including the land itself, were in the sea.[5] For a time giant fish, armor-plated like a man-of-war, and with awful appetites, just about ran everything. Then came the reign of the sharks. Some of them had jaws that opened to the height of a door--six feet or over. Next in succession, as rulers of the sea, were the fish-lizards, of whom that hinge-jawed Mesosaur was one. Of another of these fish-lizards a famous teacher of Edinburgh University, Professor Blackie, wrote that funny verse at the head of this chapter. The bones of this particular specimen were found sticking out of a cliff at Lyme-Regis, a popular watering-place in the English Channel, by a pretty English girl who was strolling along the beach.