Extinct Monsters and Creatures of Other Days; a Popular Account of Some of the Larger Forms of Ancient Animal Life

Abstract

SINCE the author of this volume was the first to recognise that the larger extinct animals of former ages presented a promising field for a popular work showing what these creatures probably looked like in life, he thoroughly deserved success in his attempt to fill a gap in literature, and we have there fore great pleasure in congratulating him on the appearance of a second edition. In the volume now before us, Mr. Hutchinson has combined his original two works in one, with some condensation of the old matter, and with the addition of a large quantity of new material, both in the shape of text and illustra tions, in order to bring it abreast of modern palaeon tology. Since 1892 and 1894, the respective dates of publication of “Extinct Monsters” and “Creatures of Other Days,” vertebrate palaeontology has indeed made vast strides, as is especially noticeable in the case of the anomodont reptiles and the proboscideans, and the author appears to have discharged the difficult task of bringing the work up-to-date in a satisfactory and interesting manner. From first to last the volume is thoroughly readable, and it is to be hoped that it may aid in dissipating the ignorance still so prevalent with regard to the relative ages of the mammoth and the iguanodon.