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About The Oregon daily journal. (Portland, Or.) 1902-1972 | View Entire Issue (June 13, 1920)
Diagram of the Monster Spinal Column Showing the Spinal Cord 37 Feet Long and Three Brains, ::- " i' c; -: ! Q -. a -..wTOeB ne m Its cl Was, ,." . J .-.'--' 4-'- U ' i , The Skeleton of the Puzzling Monster Showing (AJthe Location of the Tiny Head Brain; (B) the. Larger miaaie uratn ana K me very barge icruni uram ; nuico n vracu: im iau uu lAgsi Science Puzzled by a Priekistoric Monster WLicb Haci a Big Brain to -.Vorlfc Its Tail and TSammotk " Hind Legs, a SmaUer 0 for Its Forelegs, a V Little O Skull, Despite Its Unusual Gifts J tlie Original Complete Ronekeacl of Our Eartk v -The Reconstruction of the Dinosaur Which Professor Osborn Declare to Be the Most Perfect Ever Made of Any Fossil Creature. Beside.lt Is ; a Modern Automobile, Illustrating by Comparison the Enormous Bulk of the Creature. Py Dr. W. H. Daltou. WHAT vas ierhaps Nature's most usurious expertmenfcln brain mak-. jfng, millions of jrears before she eyoiveif inan's organ of thought, has ust ; been Teyealed 'by scientists stndjrlng the fosi remains of a most Interesting extinct monster called the camarasaurus. f .. the camarasaurus had three brains! One if as in his head, the second was located in ; a cavity of the spinal column Just between the foreshoulders., The third was located -In the sacrum, or section of the backbone ; The Not Unpleas ing Face' of tho Three-Brained Dinosaur and It T6ithful but -Otherwise $ome what- Vacant Smile. -Reconstruction by Artist Chrislman of the American Museum of Natural ' History, New York. bore his hind legs, Instead jf sticking out st thS'top of his body. " The whole animal seems to merge into one massive structure, in which every sec tlott is ihasslTe except the top of he neck, the head and the lower end of the tail . ' Eren' the" last named did not end In a swhlp lash." ilost lnosaurs have emaljer, shorter fore limbs,' much like our arms and bands la skeletonic. atruc jfure. No so' with camarasaurus. He stood on his fore legs, .and they were legs, like a mammal, no cenaimjr iuu& no fim-q from FlghtersTilla, He must have made an txgly gash on an enemy with his fore legs and big claws. He may hare swung his massive tall with a knockout blow. His Shoulders and hams look Sullivanic. We find nearly all other types ot herbivorous dinosaurs In quar . ..' ; rles In the deadly embrace of carni vorous dinosaurs, showing that they were rather easy prey. The fossil skeletons tell us bow the carnivore IrlMaJt anrl at. tha herbivore. Not so i. in this case. We In natural attitude, but with its body stretched upward on the hind feet, the skull would rear twice that height. The name was given him because oPthe large air chambers in his bones, and hence he is called the "chambered saurian. - Also, he has been named th "dredger dinosaur," because he had scoop-shaped teeth. ; . And In this monster's enormous bulk and weight lie the reason tor his three brains. The small head brain wasnt big enough to control all the tons of muscle and bone. It wai less trouble for nature to enlarge between the massive upper joints of cama-v the spinal cord at the two points indicated rassuruss Dack legsor what in man would be the hips. , f But what Is still more astonishing, the brain in (he head was almost Incongider -bje 4n' weight and size being no! larger than a hen's egg and weighing about, two ounceswhile the brain above the back legs probably weighed almost two pounds! Even (he middle brain 1 topped the head brain by almost a pound. ' The latter yrs. Indeed, so small that it was hardly more than a bujb at the tip ot the spinal cord. While therefore, at first glance it would seem that an animal endowed, with three brains ought to have been so intelligent that it could have- ruled earth at least as -well as man with, bis one brain, analysis of the organs, their 'position and compara tive magnitude shows that they certainly weren't arranged just right for intellectual victories. . , ! As a matter of fact, in spite ot his triple endowment, he was the prize bonehead of Id . earth. Dr. W. t. Matthew.- of the Americas Museum of Natural : History In New York describes him as a thing 'di rected wholly by instinct, a slow-moving animal automaton." Its skeleton Jias been mounted in the museum, together with a large model, cast in bronze, of th reptile as he Is believed to have looked in life. There is little in nature to-day with tfhich to compare this dinosaur, and there are few creatures of the past that had many of his characterstics. The skeleton is 55 feet long from tip of snout to tip of -tail. Is 14 feet high at the shoulder, with' tie head towering 20 feet above the floor was easier than to enlarge the bones of the head to accommodate a -larger organ there. . Nature, taking always the easiest way, made the sacrum brain big enough to take care of the mighty tall and hind iuar ters of the dinosaur; the middle brain looked after the body from Che beglnnin Curator of Paleontology j Dr. W. K. Greg' ory, evolutionist: Dr. C. C. Mook, anatom ist, aided by Erwia Chxistman, animal sculptor. 5 The bulging, tremendous muscles Vere worked by .Gregory, who. with Chrlstman and Osbora, executed the portraiture"- as In life. ' Professor dsborn states: - "I believe the heads separately, and the appearance as in life of the rep tile as a whole, to be the most scientific portraits of a great dinosaur and the most probable likenesses - that have yet - been executed." - - - Professor Osborn says that "camarasu rus lived 16,000,000 years ago. Hereto fore, tinder the Walcott tables, dinosaurs originated 3,000,000 years ago, and were the dominant animals on ' earth up to 3.000,000 years ago. ; Very recently. Dr. Thomas XJrowder Chamberlain, geologist of the Chicago University, and one of the greatest scientists In his line, demonstrated of- the neck to the forequarters. : The , that all geological time tables must have YA ( at iW . 4 Vt A m r,Jt BM-ak.aA a K A a .1 .am .. a . . brains In the head were concerned solely with such functions as the senses of eight, hearing, ; smelling' and perhaps conscious ; feeling. - -, '. i : : The real governing, co-ordinating faculty seems to have existed in the entire spinal cord. Perhaps, accurately speaking, the brain "of this weird creature could be said " to be a thick cord brain. 37 feet Ions, with three bulbs on it; which seems ven more radical revision, as he had positive evi dence that the first glacial period was 75,000,000 years ago, prior to .the Cam brian Age. Under this revision. If cama rasaurus -was the dominant reptile 15, 000,000 .' years ago, the footprints of the first, known dinosaurs found in the Con necticut Valley would have to be set back from. 9,000,000 years ago to 18,000,000 years ago. In "ether words, tbe new tables remarkable even than the three-bram way make everything, twice as old as formerly. We are dealing here, thfen, with an of putting the matter. The deduction Is therefore i that the brain ..was Coordinated along , the entire backbone, with tha functions as we know them to-day from the workings within our own craniums, distributed at points in larger cavities for the control of the move ments of the animal. Camarasaurus, then, as has been said, gives us a glimpse of tbe very first attempts of nature in. brain -evolution. He was also one of the first -animals to have a backbone made pf bone, : his predecessors, considerabfy ' further back, having cords of cartilage as the' beginnings of spines. ; f :' ' The restoration of the skeleton " and appearances as in life of camarasaurus are the results of eight years more or less continuous studies of four savants, mem bers of the leading scientific societies of America and Europe. These men com prise Prof. Henry Fairfield Osborn, Presl dent pf the Museum; Dr. V. D. Matthew, Utterly new conception of earth life. The gigantic camarasaur. t it seems, was the dominant animal for a period estimated at 3,000,000 years, at a time when hereto fore we were led to believe that there were .only f amphibians, precursors of rep tiles, on earth, and none of these of very large dimensions. And what is more, the four savants say: ' "Our general conclusion Is that this dinosaur was a very broad, massive, slow moving sauropod (ll2ard-footed) to fact, the .most massive reptile in proportions that ever has been found." The double tow of teeth are entirely .different from what one would expect In any reptile or other animal. They ire spoon-shaped, the spoons bending . in. When the mouth opened and shut, these teeth worked precisely like the scoop of a modern dredge. Undoubtedly, the first ot bis kind to be evilved be &ad amphibian ,C) 1920. International Feature 8errice. loo. like teeth .for cutting food. This ' dinosaur's food In fact, the only food he could get at the time was - vegetation growing In swampy lakes and the leaves of the overhanging trees along the, shores. Cutting teeth were not sufficient for filling the rapidly , expanding bodies of these rapidly Increasing sauropods. Cutting teeth could snip of f the vegetation In part, but were not adapted to the succu lent roots down In .the mud. So we have here one of the mosA per- lecc uiusiraiions oi , . how the functions of all animal lifejnn- dergo changes to get food. As fast as their teeth developed for the purpose the huger, sauropods grew in proportions. It wouW not be surprising if further excavation of 'the Colorado formations, say by miners, should unearth - skeletons mach larger, even twice as large, since, so far, the sur face has only been scratched. ' Camarasaurus also used his front feet to aid in digging up roots in the lake mud. In so doing bm developed long; heavy claws on them, and hence the necessity for brain control at the top ot his forelegs. His hind feet had to bold him down while he was digging. The result was that the hind feet became semi-flat, without much in the claw line. When the hind feet flat- ' tened out sufficiently, later camarasaurus could stand on them without sinkingmuch in the mud. ; The fiat hind feet also! en abled them, when fm shore, to stand! on : them, with the aid of the huge tall, tripod .t fashion, and reach much further up into the succulent foliage of the trees. When Some carnivorous enemy, hoping to catch . the herbivorous creature ashore, attempted, to seise him the camarasaurus , swiftly swung on the -pivot of his tail and sprang back into the swampy lake and its shelter of water and mud.' -V;.-; .-'x.'V V I The skeleton of camarasaurus seems to divide Itself into three nearly equal parts, . say, IS feet each of neck and head, back and body, and tail. It seems to be charac- - terlstlc of animals, even to-day, . that a long neck predicates a small head. You fiittrt Britain BifhtoSeMsaa. ...i ! if i T-y '' Yet Deapit This Same Eosrmout - Balk the Brain in Its Head Was Only the, Six of a Hen's Egg. Man's Brain la Shown in the Dia gram In Comparative Proportions - to the Ew Thcao Two Photo. ' graph Illuatrato Why the Dino saur Has Con but Man is Still Here. , .-,-! . .-V':; -,.V will note the same characteristic In human beings,- more especially In women. There is the difference, however, in that the giraffe, with long neck and short . bead, and the woman with long neck and small head, have good' brains, while our cama rasamr was not so pro vided. The neoktof the camarasaur had - to be extended. In process ' of extension : his hea constantly reduced la size to make tor longer- reaching neck. The camarasaur had no particular need ot skull brains. : He had nothing much to think about except getting several tons of , fooi daily into his cavernous body and an occasional escape from his enemies. Be-, cause Of the smallness of the opening, of " his mouth and the tube dowd bis throat, the process of swallowing so much food was slow and undoubtedly; kept him at work dally much longer than our longest union hours. This fact aided in his later and complete extinction. As his favorite swampy lakes were uplifted and drained, all those of his kind not buried outright were unable to find foods soft enough to force down the long, slender throats. There is another peculiarity. Dr. Mook possesses just a fragmentof the skin of the camarasaur. It appears to have been smooth and slimy, yet with boney ossicles on it If you look at an alligator you will note that iisjbeavy hide Is marked off . in plates. Not thus with tho camarasaur. It -is not known : just what- function these boney ossicles on his skin stand for, prob ably 'preyentstlve.s of some kind of irrita tion by the heavy plant life prickles 'or briars possibly, certainly not as protection against its enemies,' any carnivore of which would have bitten right through -him. x-y . v.- -o;;.,-" Camarasaurus had severar oUier. pectK liarlties all his own. His neck, Instead of sticking out from the upper part of his body, curved and broadened downward" to the trunk above the fore legs. Likewise bis tail broadened downward to the point have yet to find what carnivorous enemy got the best of camarasaurus, if sny. Jsucn, -instances, even il b-uuw u iu ujr specialist, will only prove that the combats took-place after the camarasaur became bewildered by upheaval of swamps aed wandered on dry land in" a -weakened' and lying condition. Scientists have a traditional hypothesis that dinosaurs were not ancestral to an later type of animals, because they r& alleged, to have specialized away front modern types Instead- of towards' them. When we find -resemblances to dinosaurs In later animalsv we are told that these ere "parallels of evolution." This hypothe sis will bear much revision. If camsra Saurus was the dominant animal, or rpp (ile,vof So long kgo as fifteen million years, he must have been ancestral to later types at least In part. Ma;umals and men have twenty-eight of "his bones, however modified by time for environmental conditions. Maybe some othe'r animal of his time passed them on to us and maybe not. There was moropus, a later horse-like mammal, witb similar fore feot and huge claws for digging. There is the giraffe with similar long nepk and small head, but with the number of neck bones reduced to seven. There are the humans with long necks and small heads with-the same reduction pf neck bones as the giraffe. Some of us and many otner mammals in herit flat feet from some reptile that got . fiat hind feet by reaching high for its food. Why not inherited from camarasaurus f The fact is, camarasaurus lived in an age so far distant that he couldn't specialize away from the coming; generations. ' Ma had to specialize with all his might toward us? naa uv acaa, uaaauJoaLjA o KUAh gui ajs the trolley and went wan!eriqg far aflejd. This chap seems to have built a soli4 foun datlon for many types that came after hlrar clear down to the present. - It required fourteen million years to modify reptile skeleton and bones to pro duce a man. The whole tail of cama rasaurus hd to go by the board. AH those cavities along his spino had to unloose ; their 'brain material so it .could be brought up into a vastly modified skull. The big air chambers in his bone) bad to be closed. While his fore. legs and feet had to be im mensely modified to produce our arms and hands,' but few modifications had to be made for the four legs of our domestic animals and quadrupeds generally
