| Brooke Bond | PG Tips tea cards offered in the interest of education | Prehistoric Animals


	01 EUSTHENOPTERON (Greek:'strong fin') The ancestors of the four-legged land vertebrates are to be found among the fleshy-finned fishes. The only surviving fleshy-fins, however, are the famous coelacanth (Latimeria) of the Indian Ocean and three genera of lungfish, all of which are cousins of the land vertebrates rather than their ancestors. More typical was Eusthenopteron from the Upper Devonian (350 million years ago) of North America and Europe. This carnivorous fresh-water fish, 1-2 feet long, had lobe like fins with strong muscular bases, nostrils which opened into the mouth and primitive lungs. In times of drought It could crawl on land from pool to pool in search of water and food.
	02 ICHthYOSTEGA (Greek: 'fish roof') Half-way from fleshy-finned fish to amphibian was lchthyostega, 3 feet long, from rocks of eastern Greenland laid down in fresh water at the end of the Devonian period (345 million years ago). It still had a tail-fin like that of a fish and a remnant of the bones covering the gill-chamber but it is considered to be the earliest known amphibian because of the well developed limbs and limb girdles which are essentially those of a land animal, and the backbone was strengthened to support its weight when out of water. lchthyostega was probably truly amphibious in its habits.
	03 ERYOPS (Greek: 'long face') This was a typical member of the labyrinthodonts, the large amphibians of the Carboniferous, Permian and Triassic. Eryops itself lived in Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico in Early Permian times (about 260 million years ago). It was a large, bulky animal, 5-6 feet long, which probably lived a truly amphibious life like that of modern crocodiles; the rather flattened head, armed with big teeth, suggests that it was a fish-eater. The backbone and other parts of the skeleton were very strongly built; it crawled slowly and awkwardly on its belly, pushing with its short bent legs. Bony nodules in the leathery skin formed a heavy armour.
	04 GERROthORAX (Greek: 'wickerwork breastplate') Gerrothorax was a late and rather peculiar amphibian, belonging to a group called plagiosaurs which had gone back to living entirely in the water. It lived in Sweden in Late Triassic times (about 200 million years ago). Both head and body were broad and very flattened; the whole animal was up to 3 feet long; with short head, small limbs and reduced tail, and it was armoured above and below. There were external gills which persisted in the adult, just as in some modern salamanders. Gerrolhorax probably fed like the angler-fish of today, lying on the bottom of the pond and attracting prey into its open mouth.
	05 DIPLOCAULUS (Greek: 'double stalk') Though an amphibian, Diplocaulus was not a labyrinthodont it belonged to a different group, the nectrideans. 2-3 feet long, it lived in Texas in Early Permian times (260 million years ago). The flattened head and body and the small, weak limbs suggest that it lived mostly on the bottom of lakes and streams and probably could not venture successfully on to dry land. Its most remarkable character was that, as it grew, it developed huge horn like extensions of the skull roof on either side, so that the head of the adult animal was shaped like a broad arrow; the jaws, however, remained small. The purpose of this feature is unknown.
	06 SEYMOURIA (from Seymour, Texas) About 2 feet long, Seymouria is from the Lower Permian redbeds of Seymour, Texas, and lived some 260 million years ago. Whether it was a labyrinthodont amphibian or a primitive reptile has been much disputed. The skull and teeth are typically amphibian, but the rest of the skeleton is generally more reptile like. The crucial question is, did it lay eggs in water (hatching into tadpole like larvae) or on land ? Here again the evidence is indecisive; some similar fossils from Europe had larvae with gills, but in Seymouria itself some specimens (females ?) have a gap between back of pelvis and tail through which a large shelled egg could have passed.
	07 STENAULORHYNCHUS (Greek: 'narrow-grooved snout') Only one rhynchocephalian lives today: the tuatara (Sphenodon), which looks like a lizard but isn't and is found on a few islands off the New Zealand coast. In the past this group was abundant, and one family, the rhynchosaurs of the Trias, became as large as pigs., A typical rhynchosaur was Stenaulorhynchus, common in Tanzania 210 million years ago (Middle Trias), It was a sturdily built quadruped up to 6 feet long, with a parrot like beak; the upper edge of the lower Jaw formed a chopping blade, fitting into a groove in the upper jaw. Stenaulorhynchus was evidently herbivorous, eating hard-shelled fruits.
	08 MOSASAURUS (from River Maas and Greek 'lizard') Unlike most other 'sauruses', the mosasaurs were true lizards. They were very large (up to 30 feet long) and had gone back to a completely aquatic, fish-eating existence in the. Upper Cretaceous seas of 100-65 million years ago. The first Mosasaurus fossil, found in the banks of the River Maas in Holland, was captured by the French Army in 1795 and taken back to Paris. The large head bore nostrils on top, rather than back; the neck. was short; the body and tail were long and slim. The reptile swam . with its tail, which was flattened from side to side; the short limbs, with spreading webbed toes, were used for steering.
	09 MANDASUCHUS (from Manda in Tanzania and Greek 'crocodile') This reptile was a typical pseudosuchian, belonging to the group from which dinosaurs, pterosaurs, crocodiles and birds all evolved. Contrary to what is stated in many books, however, most of the pseudosuchians showed no tendency towards walking or running on their hind legs alone. Mandasuchus lived in Tanzania in Middle Triassic times, 210 million years ago. It was of crocodile like size and build, with large teeth of the carnivorous type, a double row of armour plates down the middle of the back and hind legs rather longer than the front ones. Its habits too were probably like those of modern crocodiles, though it may have been less found of the water.
	10 PLATEOSAURUS (Greek: 'flat lizard') This is a fairly common dinosaur in the Upper Triassic rocks of Germany, some 200 million years old. It was a saurischian or 'lizard-hipped' dinosaur belonging to the group known as prosauropods and was a relative (though not an ancestor) of the gigantic sauropods found in the Jurassic and Cretaceous (cards 11 and 12). Plaleosaurus was about 20 feet long and rather clumsily built. The small skull was furnished with flattened teeth suitable for a diet of soft vegetation. Neck and tail were long and heavy; the limbs, especially the hind limbs, were stout. The animal was probably a partial biped, standing or walking on four legs or two as preferred.
	11 CETIOSAURUS (Greek: 'whale lizard') Perhaps the most familiar of the great sauropods of the Jurassic and Cretaceous are Diplodocus and Brontosaurus from the Upper Jurassic of the western USA Sauropods lived also in England, however, the most common genus being Cetiosaurus from the Jurassic of the Midlands (about 160 million years ago) ; a good skeleton, the best so far, was unearthed near Stamford (Lincs.) in 1968. The sauropods were saurischian ('lizard-hipped') dinosaurs. Most of them were gigantic, larger than any other land animals, living or extinct. They were quadrupedal, probably lived on firm dry land and ate soft plant material; their only defences against aggressors were their size and their whip like tail.
	12 BRACHIOSAURUS (Greek: 'arm lizard') The biggest of the sauropods - the biggest known land animal ever - was Brachiosaurus, from the Upper Jurassic (150 million years ago) of western USA and Tanzania. Its weight has been estimated at 80 tons, twenty times as heavy as a large elephant; it must have consumed vast quantities of plant food. Unlike most other dinosaurs it had front legs longer than the hind ones, so that its back sloped upwards towards the head. In the Natural History Museum in East Berlin there is a mounted skeleton of Brachiosaurus,. the head is 42 feet from the ground, its upper arm bone is over 7 feet long, and it dwarfs the Diplodocus standing next to it.
	13 COELOPHYSIS (Greek: 'hollow form') This small, bipedal, neat-eating coelurosaur was one of the earliest saurischian dinosaurs, living about 200 million years ago. A great pile of skeletons, some complete and ranging from babies to adults, was found in Upper Triassic rocks at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico. The fully-grown animal was 8-10 feet long, slender, and probably weighed only 40-50 pounds. The head was long and pointed, the teeth sharp with fine saw toothed edges like steak knives; the neck, tail and hind legs were also long, and the hind feet were bird like with only three toes touching the ground. The front legs were shorter, with grasping hands.
	14 ORNIthOMIMUS (Greek: 'bird imitator') Ornithomimus was one of the 'ostrich dinosaurs' that lived in North America and Asia during the Cretaceous (12. 0-65 million years ago). Like Coelophysis, it was a coelurosaur and therefore a saurischian, but was much larger; 14 feet is a typical length, but some specimens were bigger still. The neck was very long and snaky and bore a relatively tiny head with toothless, beak like jaws. Although the animal ran only on its back legs the front legs were longer than in other coelurosaurs and the three-fingered hands look as though they were used for pulling and tearing. Perhaps Ornithomimus was omnivorous, eating small animals, insects, eggs and fruit.
	15 DEINONYCHUS (Greek: 'terrible claw) This dinosaur, discovered only in 1964, lived in Early Cretaceous times (108 million years ago) in Montana, USA A relative of the other bipedal carnivores, Deinonychus was about 9 feet long, lightly built, fast-running, and had a fairly large head. There were, however, two remarkable features. First, although the hind foot had three large toes, only the two outer ones reached the ground; the innermost had a very large, sickle-shaped claw which was used as a striking weapon. Secondly, the tail was long and quite rigid, held horizontally as a balancing organ when the animal was running
	16 MEGalOSAURUS (Greek: 'big lizard') This was one of the carnosaurs, which were bipedal flesh-eating saurischians like the coelurosaurs but larger and heavier. Megalosaurus lived in England and France throughout the Jurassic (190-140 million years ago). The earliest recorded dinosaur bone was probably . Megalosaurus; it was the first dinosaur to be named, the first described (in 1824) and one of the three upon which Owen originally based the concept of 'Dinosauria' in 1841. The animal was over 20 feet long and weighed perhaps a couple of tons; the head was especially large and heavy and the neck very short. The rocks of southern England have yielded not only many bones of Megalosaurus but also its footprints.
	17 TYRANNOSAURUS (Greek: 'tyrant lizard') Tyrannosaurus, one of the last of the dinosaurs, was the largest flesh-eating animal that ever walked the earth. It has been found in the uppermost Cretaceous rocks (about 70 million years old) of western North America and Mongolia. This carnosaur, was 16 feet tall, 40 feet long and weighed about 7 tons. The head alone was over 4 feet long, the jaws equipped with fearsome 6-inch teeth. The neck was short and the body bulky. The hind legs were immensely large and powerful, the clawed feet obviously used for gripping and tearing like a hawk's; but the tiny front legs, with their two-fingered hands, must have been almost useless.
	18 SCELIDOSAURUS (Greek: 'limb lizard') Until very recently Scelidosaurus, was the earliest ornithischian 'bird-hipped' dinosaur known; it has been found only in the Lower Jurassic rocks of Dorset, about 185 million years old, and was described by Sir Richard Owen as long ago as 1861. The animal was a heavily built quadruped about 13 feet long. The head was small, the jaws weak, and the teeth show that Sceliodosaurus. Like all ornithischians was a plant-eater. The body was protected by armour plate in the skin, especially along the middle of the neck, back and tail. Often regarded as an ancestral stegosaur, it was probably just as closely related-perhaps more closely-to the ankylosaurs.
	19 STEGOSAURUS (Greek: 'roof lizard') The familiar plated dinosaur Stegosaurus has been found only in the Upper Jurassic of western North America (150-140 million years old), but related forms occur elsewhere-including England-in rocks of the same age. Usually about 20 feet long but sometimes reaching 30, Stegosaurus was a quadruped with short front legs and long back ones. The head was small, with a brain the size of a walnut, and the herbivorous teeth were small and weak. A double row of enormous vertical bony plates ran along the back, probably for defence. The tail bore two pairs of long sharp spikes, forming a dangerous weapon.
	20 POLACANthUS (Greek: 'many-spined') Polacanthus was an early ankylosaur, an armoured dinosaur or 'reptilian tank'; it is known from only one specimen, which comes from Lower Cretaceous beds in the Isle of Wight and is about 115 million years old. The head is missing but it is assumed that it was much like that of other ankylosaurs; the whole animal was about 14 feet long. It was a strong-limbed quadruped with a low flattened body; there were two rows of enormous spines down the back, a solid shield of bone over the hips, and stegosaur like plates along the tail. Other ankylosaurs such as Palaeoscincus had a more complete armour .
	21 HYPSILOPHODON (Greek: 'high ridge tooth') The bipedal members of the omithischian group of dinosaurs are called omithopods (Greek: 'bird foot'). Hypsilophodon was a small and primitive omithopod which lived in the Isle of Wight in Early Cretaceous times, about 115 million years ago; several specimens are known, all from one locality on the south-west coast (Cowleaze Chine). The length of the animal was 5-6 feet. There is a predentary bone, found only in ornithischians, forming the front end of the lower jaw; it was toothless and covered in life by a horny beak. The front of the upper jaw, however, bears a few small teeth (lost in more advanced ornithopods).
	22 IGUANODON (from Iguana and Greek 'tooth') The Lower Cretaceous of southern England has yielded bones and footprints of this large ornithopod (140-106 million years old) but never a complete skeleton. In 1878, however, about 30 skeletons in various degrees of completeness were discovered in a Belgian coal mine at Bernissart. Iguanodon was the dinosaur first noticed by Mrs. Mary Ann Mantell in 1822, the second dinosaur to be named and described (in 1825) and one of the three upon which Owen based his concept of 'Dinosauria' in 1841. Early reconstructions (there is one in the grounds of the Crystal Palace in London) were entirely wrong; Iguanodon was a heavily built herbivorous biped, 16 feet tall and 31 feet long, with remarkable spiky thumbs.
	23 CORYthOSAURUS (Greek: 'helmet lizard') Corythosaurus from the Upper Cretaceous of Canada (76-70 million years old) was one of the many different hadrosaurs or duckbilled dinosaurs - really very specialised ornithopods. About 30 feet long, it was probably only a partial biped and may often have walked on all fours; the deep, strong tail and the webbed fingers of the hand suggest that it was a good swimmer. The front parts of the jaws are toothless and formed a duck like bill; the back parts have hundreds of grinding teeth arranged in batteries, which suggests a diet of harsh vegetation. The peculiarity of Corythosaurus was a hollow, helmet like crest covering the entire top of the skull.
	24 PSITTACOSAURUS (Greek: 'parrot lizard') Remains of this bipedal ornithischian have been found in Mongolia and China, in Lower Cretaceous rocks laid down some 110 million years ago. The animal was small, about 6 feet long. The skull is deep and narrow, with eye and nostril high up on the side, and with prominent parrot like beak; the hand was obviously used for grasping. Psittacosaurus must have been close to the line of evolution leading from the ornithopods to the horned dinosaurs, though certain details show that it cannot be directly ancestral to the latter. The fact that some authorities place it in the first group, others in the second, indicates its transitional nature.
	25 PROTOCERAtopS (Greek: 'first horned face') This 'bird-hipped' reptile, about 6 feet long, was an early horned dinosaur - without a horn! It is common in the Upper Cretaceous rocks of Mongolia, about 90 million years old, and many different growth stages are known. Completely quadrupedal, Protoceratops probably evolved from the bipedal psittacosaurs by reverting to all fours. The relatively enormous skull, deep and narrow, ended in a parrot like beak; it was extended backwards into a bony frill, essentially for the attachment of strong jaw muscles but also protecting neck and shoulders; and a bump on top of the snout foreshadowed the nasal horn. Nests of Protoceratops eggs have been discovered-some still containing embryos.
	26 trICERAtopS (Greek: 'three horned face') One of the commonest fossils in the uppermost Cretaceous beds of western North America is the great rhino like dinosaur Triceratops. Vast herds of this reptile roamed the region 70-65 million years ago, grazing the vegetation with their beaks and shearing teeth. The head was huge, so that a 24 foot animal had a 7 foot skull; this bore a modest nose-horn and a pair of enormously long brow-horns above the eyes, and there was a short but solid frill projecting backwards over the neck. The body was protected by a leathery skin. Triceratops must have been a formidable adversary, even for a hungry Tyrannosaurus.
	27 RHAMPHORHYNCHUS (Greek: 'beak snout') Rhamphorhynchus, from the Upper Jurassic of Germany and Tanzania (147-140 million years old), belonged to the Rhamphorhynchoidea, the earlier and more primitive of the two groups of flying reptiles (pterosaurs). These were small forms, their jaws well equipped with teeth and their tails long. The wing-span of Rhamphorhynchus itself was about 30 inches; the tail was stiffened by ligaments and was expanded at the end into a diamond-shaped rudder. Because pterosaur skeletons are very light and fragile they are usually preserved only in fine grained lagoonal deposits; this, together with the fact that their teeth (where present) point forwards, suggests that they caught fish swimming near the surface.
	28 PTERANODON (Greek: 'wing without teeth') This was one of the last of the more advanced group of pterosaurs, the Pterodactyloidea, which differed from the Rhamphorhynchoidea in having fewer teeth and a much shorter tail. Pteranodon lived in North America in Late Cretaceous times, about 50 million years ago; it was the largest of the pterosaurs, with a wing-span of about 25 feet (in fact it was the largest creature that ever flew), but it was so lightly built that it probably weighed only about 40 pounds. It had no teeth at all and virtually no tail, and the back of the skull was extended upwards and backwards into an enormous crest of unknown purpose.
	29 ARCHAEOPTERYX (Greek: 'ancient wing') Archaeopteryx is from the Lithographic Limestone of southern Germany, of Upper Jurassic age, and therefore lived about 147 million years ago. It is a half-way stage in the evolution of reptiles into birds. Some characters are still reptilian such as teeth, long bony tail, no keel on the breastbone, claws on the fore-limbs, no air-spaces in the bones; others are already bird like (feathers) wings, collarbones fused into wishbone, big toe opposable to other toes, pubis directed backwards. Because it had well developed feathers, however, it is classified as a bird-the oldest known. The size of a pigeon, it probably lived in trees and glided rather than flew.
	30 ICHthYORNIS and HESPERORNIS (Greek: 'fish bird' and 'western bird') Remains of these fossil birds have been found in the Upper Cretaceous chalk of Kansas, USA, about 80 million years old. Ichthyornis, only about 8 inches tall, looked like a modern tern - it had a keeled breastbone and well developed wings and was certainly a strong flier. Hesperornis was about 6 feet long, and was a diving bird-more like a loon; it could not fly, for it had already lost its wings (except for a slender upper-arm bone), and its legs were more suited to swimming than walking. It was formerly believed that both these birds (unlike modern birds) had teeth, but only Hesperornis shows evidence of this.
	31 PHORORHACOS (Greek: 'bearing wrinkles') In Early and Middle Miocene times, 26-12 million years ago, South America was still an island. Large flesh eating mammals . other than marsupials - had not yet arrived from other continents; their place in the animal community was partly filled by ground-living flightless birds. The best known of these, Phororhacos from Patagonia, stood 5 feet tall on its long legs but had greatly reduced wings. Its head was about 18 inches long, as big as that of a horse, and was equipped with a very powerful hooked beak. Among its living relatives are the cariamas of South America and the bustards of the Old World.
	32 AEPYORNIS (Greek: 'high bird') The genus Aepyornis comprised several different flightless 'Elephant-Birds', all of which lived on the island of Madagascar in Pleistocene and Holocene times. They became extinct only about 300 years ago, perhaps because the first men on Madagascar collected their eggs for food (keeping the shells for use as containers). The tallest of these ostrich like creatures reached a height of over 10 feet; although the giant moa of New Zealand might well have been a little taller still, Aepyornis was probably the heaviest bird known and perhaps the inspiration of Sinbad the Sailor's legendary 'Roc'. It was also the subject of H G Wells' amusing short story 'Aepyornis Island'.
	33 ICHthYOSAURUS (Greek: 'Fish lizard') Ichthyosaurs were reptiles that were completely adapted to life in the sea, just as dolphins are mammals that are adapted likewise. Indeed, they looked like fishes, for their limbs had changed into paddles; but they must have had to surface periodically to take air into their lungs, and, since they could not come ashore to lay their eggs, they were obliged to bring forth their young alive. Up to more than 30 feet long, they probably lived on fishes and molluscs. Ichthyosaurus itself is fairly common in the Lower Jurassic rocks (some 185 million years old) of Lyme Regis in Dorset, where Mary Anning found a good articulated skeleton in 1810.
	34 CRYPTOCLIDUS (Greek: 'hidden collar-bone') Cryptoclidus belonged to the plesiosaurs, a group of sea-reptiles which were less well adapted to marine life than were the ichthyosaurs; like seals, they probably moved about clumsily on land. Most of them had very small heads, long flexible necks, short bodies, short tails, and four powerful paddles with which they rowed themselves through the water. Some plesiosaurs, however (such as Liopleurodon) differed in having enormous heads and short necks. It has often been suggested that the Loch Ness Monster, if it exists, is a surviving plesiosaur. Cryptolclidus lived in Upper Jurassic times, some 160-150 million years ago, in the seas which covered the English Midlands. Most specimens come from near Peterborough.
	35 TANYStrOPHEUS (Greek: 'long neck-vertebra') Tanystropheus, from the Middle Trias of Switzerland and Poland (about 210 million years old), Is one of the most grotesque fossils ever found. Most of it was lizard like-indeed, it was probably related to lizards-but the neck was extraordinarily long. Out of a total length of about 13 feet, the neck occupied more than 6 feet, the body only 2 feet and the tail about 4 feet. But this long neck included only 12 vertebrae and could not have been very flexible. Tanystropheus probably dwelt near water, either salt or fresh, but we have little idea of how it lived or how it used its neck.
	36 DIMEtrODON (Greek: 'double-size Tooth') This animal was a pelycosaur, a primitive member of the Synapsida or mammal like reptiles; it lived in Texas in Early Permian times (280-240 million years ago). As much as 11 feet long, it had a deep narrow skull with large teeth for attacking other animals and tearing their flesh. Highly characteristic was the 'sail' along the middle of its back, a web stretched between the greatly elongated neural spines of the vertebrae (up to 3 feet long). This might have served to make it look bigger and frighten its enemies, but it is far more likely that it was a simple device for regulating the animal's temperature.
	37 LYStrOSAURUS (Greek: 'shovel lizard') This mammal like reptile belonged to the very large, very successful group of plant-eaters called the Dicynodontia (Greek: 'two dog teeth'), abundant and widely distributed in the Upper Permian and most of the Trias. Except for a pair of tusk like upper canines, the teeth of dicynodonts had usually been replaced by a horny beak. Lystrosaurus is of earliest Triassic age (225-220 million years) and is found in South Africa, India, China and Antarctica; indeed, it was the first fossil reptile to be identified in Antarctica (1969). 3-4 feet long and rather hippo like, it is generally believed to have been semi-aquatic.
	38 CYNOGNAthUS (Greek: 'dog jaw') Cynognathus represents the Cynodontia, the most mammal like of the mammal like reptiles and the group from which evolved the mammals themselves. It is found in South Africa in rocks of Lower Triassic age (120-115 million years old). The body was like that of a great lizard, with powerful tail and short legs, and was about 6 feet long. The head was more dog like, with teeth already specialised into incisors, canines and cheek teeth as in modern mammals; the animal was certainly very active and perhaps warm-blooded. Cynognathus ate flesh but other Cynodonts developed shearing teeth, probably for dealing with vegetable food.
	39 MEGAZOStrODON (Greek: 'big girdle tooth') The only specimen of Mezoscrodon yet found was discovered in the Upper Trias of Lesotho (Basutoland); it is therefore just about 200 million years old. It was recognised immediately as a mammal because of its typically mammalian molar teeth. The skull was about half an inch long and the whole animal only a few inches; its general appearance may have been not unlike that of a modem shrew. Its habits too may have been shrew like - hiding in the undergrowth by day and coming out at night to eat insects, worms, buds or whatever it could find. These early mammals could have been no match for the great reptiles of the time.
	40 DIPROTODON (Greek: 'two front teeth') The marsupials (pouched mammals) reached their greatest size in Diprotodon, which lived in Australia in Pleistocene times and survived until comparatively recently. Thus, while some specimens may be up to 2 million years old, radiocarbon tests have dated others as low at 6,700. The animal was a rather clumsy quadruped about 11 feet long, rather like a rhino-sized wombat, and was indeed a close relative-though not a member-of the wombat family. It was herbivorous, living perhaps on a type of salt-bush. Bones and teeth of Diprotodon were first found in 1830 and attributed to various other mammals before Sir Richard Owen realised that they represented something new.
	41 SIVATHERIUM (from Sitlialik Hills in India and Greek 'beast') This ungulate (hoofed mammal) lived in India and Africa during the Pleistocene, within the last ~ million years or so. Sivatheres were a side-branch of the giraffe family, without the long neck or long legs typical of modern giraffes but with a large and massive body some 8 feet long. The male had two pairs of bony outgrowths on the skull, probably covered with horn during life and not shed annually; the front pair, small and conical, were above the eyes, while the back pair, huge and flaring, were on top of the head. A bronze figure from ancient Sumeria is just like this; was Sivatherium still living a mere few thousand years ago ?
	42 HYRACOTHERIUM (from 'hyrax' and Greek 'beast') This lightly built, fox-sized animal lived in Europe and North America about 50 million years ago, in Early Eocene times; it is also called Eohippus, 'dawn horse', for it marks the beginnings of horse evolution. It ran on the hoofed tips of the three toes on each elongated foot; on the front foot only was an extra, outer toe which scarcely reached the ground. The jaws bore small chisel like incisors, small canines, and low-crowned cheek teeth with rounded conical cusps. The head was long and low, the brain small, the back curved and the tail rather short. Hyracotherium probably browsed on the leaves of forest trees and shrubs.
	43 BalUCHITHERIUM (from Baluchistan and Greek 'beast) Although hornless, this great mammal was technically a rhinoceros (a 'nose-horn'). Its remains have been found in Asia in Upper Oligocene and Lower Miocene rocks, 30-20 million years old. The largest known land mammal, far larger than any elephant, it stood 18 feet at the shoulder, Its head-though relatively small was 4½ feet long, and it weighed many tons. The massive pillar like limbs were long, especially the front ones. The neck too was long and enabled the animal to browse on the higher branches of trees, nipping them off with its single pair of blunt incisors and grinding them up with its cheek teeth.
	44 COELODONTA (Greek: 'hollow teeth') This animal, the woolly rhinoceros, lived in northern Eurasia during the Ice Age (Pleistocene); it was especially common in Europe during Late Pleistocene times, but it never reached Ireland or America. The low carriage of the head and neck, the forward position of the nasal horn, the protruding upper lip, the reduced front teeth and the high-crowned molar teeth all indicate that Coelodonta was specialised as a grass-eater. It died out at the end of the Last Glaciation, about 10,000 years ago, perhaps because the grassy tundra where it liked to live was gradually replaced by forest. Coelodonta was about 8 feet long and was probably related to the modern two-homed Sumatran rhinoceros.
	45 DEINOTHERIUM (Greek: 'terrible beast') Deinotheres were fairly common in the Miocene and Pliocene of Eurasia and Africa, surviving in Africa until the Middle Pleistocenc, but they are unknown in America. Thus they have an age range from about 25 million years ago to only a million or so. They were long-legged creatures, generally of elephantine build and up to 10 feet tall or more at the shoulders. The flattish head probably carried a long trunk. Unlike every other member of the elephant order, Deinotheres had no upper rusks; but the lower jaw bore a pair of large rusks which curved downwards and even slightly backwards and may have been used for digging up roots.
	46 MAMMUthUS (Latinisation of 'mammoth') The woolly mammoth, Mammuthus primigeniu, was common throughout the Pleistocene in all northern parts of the Northern Hemisphere-Eurasia, Britain and Ireland, and North America-and became extinct only at the very end, some 10,000 years ago. Complete carcasses have been found in the frozen soil of Siberia and Alaska. Although related to the living Indian Elephant, the woolly mammoth was protected from the cold of the Ice Age by a dense coat of hair and by a layer of fat (up to 3 inches thick) under the skin; the fat served also as a food reserve for the winter. Palaeolithic Man hunted the mammoth and often depicted it in cave paintings.
	47 GLYPTODON (Greek: 'carved tooth') This mammal, found in American Pleistocene deposits from Argentina to Florida, was closely related to the living armadillos but was very much bigger - about 9 feet long. The body was protected by countless small bony plates fused into a solid carapace like the shell of a tortoise; the head, with its very deep face and jaws, was covered above by a thick bony shield; and the tail, armoured with bony rings, was probably employed as a powerful weapon. The teeth, present only in the sides of the jaws, each consisted of three high-crowned columns. Glyptodon was a plant-eater and probably used its broad claws to dig for roots and tubers.
	48 MEGATHERIUM (Greek: 'big beast') This giant ground sloth was the first of the strange fossil mammals of South America to be described (by Cuvier, in 1797). It lived there in Late Pliocene and Pleistocene times, migrating also into the south-eastern USA 20 feet long, bigger than an elephant, it must have weighed several tons. Its ancestors must have lived partly in trees, for its feet are twisted over; indeed, it could not have put the soles on the ground and must have walked slowly and clumsily, while the great basin-like pelvis suggests that it may have sat back on its haunches when at rest. The especially large claws on the hands could have served to pull down the branches of trees and scratch up small roots.
	49 SMILODON (Greek: 'scalpel tooth') The sabre-toothed cat Smilodon lived in both North and South America in Upper Pliocene and Pleistocene times; thus, while some specimens are more than 2 million years old, the age of those from Rancho La Brea, California (numbering over a thousand) is only about 15,000. As big as an African lion, Smilodon was less well adapted to running, with relatively shorter limbs and more massive claws. It probably ambushed large, slow, thick-skinned animals such as elephants, opening its lower jaw enormously wide and stabbing its victim with its very long upper canines while it held it with its powerful front legs. It may also have been a scavenger of dead animals.
	50 AUStralOPITHECUS (Latin: 'southern', and Greek: 'ape') This name refers to various 'ape-man' remains found in cave-deposits of Early and Middle Pleistocene age in South and East Africa, probably ranging in age from 2,000,000 to 500,000 years; related forms occur also in Asia. The skull appears generally ape like, the jaws - massive and projecting with very large molars; the brain cavity is about as big as in modern great apes, barely half as big as Man's. But the tooth-row forms a smooth arch, the canines are not sharp projecting fangs, the hipbones indicate an upright posture, and there are other Man like characters. Even more important, simple pebble tools were found with the bones. Australopithecus was considerably shorter than modern Man.
*Source material provided by DVLC - Dave's Vertiable Loft Centre*

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