Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 174, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 July 1920 — SALAMANDERS OF GREAT SIZE [ARTICLE]

SALAMANDERS OF GREAT SIZE

Frsof That Speclee Long Extinct, Sometimes Attained a Length of Five Foot. In Europe, some time ago. bones were dug up of some newts which in life bad been about five feet long. Every boy is familiar with newts, which he calls “salamanders," commonly found in brooks and ponds. A specimen five Inches long is a big one. But five feet —they must have been monsters. ..-1Xi......... -■ Of course these giant newts were of long-extinct species. It would have been Interesting to live in those days, when so many queer monsters (mostly of aquatic habits) swarmed the earth. They seem to have been among nature’s earliest experiments, abandoned later. There were no mammals then; and the supposition is that ail mammals of today, including man, were originally derived from a reptilian ancestry. We cannot say for certain that this queer reptile (which lived about 7,000,000 years ago) was not actually an ancestor of our own. It was dug up tn Texas, and has' been named Dlmetrodon. About eight feet long, the most curious thing about It was the enormous fin It carried on its back —the ribs of the fin being a series of bones extending from the vertebrae. Of what use was this fin? Perhaps it was merely ornamental. Or It may be that it was a means of defense.