From
analogy with existing lizards and snakes we may suppose, therefore,
that the trachodons presented a darker appearance when seen from the
back and a lighter appearance when seen from the front.
[Illustration: Fig. 31.--The Dinosaur Mummy. Detail of skin of
under side of body. _After Osborn_]
[Illustration: Fig. 32.--Skin impression from the tail of a
_Trachodon_. The impressions appear to have been left by horny
scutes or scales, not overlapping like the scales on the body of
most modern reptiles, but more like the scutes on the head of a
lizard.]
[Illustration: Fig. 33.--Skull of Gila Monster (_Heloderma_), for
comparison of surface with skin impressions of _Trachodon_.
Enlarged to 4/3.]
"The thin character of the epidermis as revealed by this specimen
favors also the theory that these animals spent a large part of their
time in the water, which theory is strengthened by the fact that the
diminutive fore limb terminates not in claws or hoofs, but in a broad
extension of the skin, reaching beyond the fingers and forming a kind
of paddle.[18] The marginal web which connects all the fingers with
each other, together with the fact that the lower side of the fore
limb is as delicate in its epidermal structure as the upper,
certainly tends to support the theory of the swimming rather than the
walking or terrestrial function of this fore paddle as indicated in
the accompanying preliminary restoration that was made by Charles R.
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