Identifier: naturalhistory07ameruoft (find matches)
Title: Natural history
Year: 1919 (1910s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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THE NAOSAURUS, OR SHIP-LIZARD. NE of the most ancient as well as most grotesque offossil reptiles is the Naosaurus, a skeleton of whichhas recently been placed on exhibition in the DinosaurHall. The animal was about eight feet long, a heavy-bodied, short-tailed carnivorous reptile with an enor-mous bony fin upon it^ back. The fin is composed
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HANNIBAL From the modeled mount in the Museum 37 THE SKELETON OF NAOSAURUS 39 of the spines of the vertebrae greatly elongated, and each spine bears aseries of little cross bars, the arrangement suggesting the masts andyards of a square-rigged ship, whence the name of Nao-saurns or Ship-Lizard. This remarkable specimen is a part of the Cope Collectionof Fossil Reptiles which was presented to the Museum by PresidentJesnp a few years ago. The bones were collected in the Permian bedsof the Wichita river region, Texas, bv Charles H. Sternberg. The spines of Xaosaurus spread out like the sticks of a fan andduring life were probably connected by tough, horny skin, though notcovered with flesh, for without seme such connecting tissue the spinesmight easily be wrenched out of place, dislocating the backbone, sincethe fin is an extension of the vertebra3, unlike the fins of fishes, whichare independent of the backbone, or the crest of the Iguana, which issimply an outgrowth from the skin. Alth

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