Ichthyosaurus

For another instance, take our queer old friend that Professor Blackie wrote the funny rhyme about, the ichthyosaurus, with a saw for a jaw and a big staring eye.

The scientists figure, just from looking into the hollow socket where the eye used to be, that he could see at night like a cat, and right through muddy water too, that he spent most of his time in shallows near the shore, that it didn't make any difference to him whether a fish was near or far, provided it wasn't too far, of course, for he could see it and catch it just the same.

They also said, these learned men, after peering into the dark hollow where that remarkable eye used to be, that Mr. Ichthyosaurus spent a great deal of time diving and a great deal of time with his homely face just above the surface of the water.

Why they could reason all this from a hollow eye socket and some bony flexible plates around the outer edge of it, you will see by referring to such books as Animals of the Past by F.A. Lucas, Director of the American Museum of Natural History, Creatures of Other Days and Extinct Monsters by Hutchinson, Extinct Animals by Lancaster, Mighty Animals by Mix, the chapter Where the World Was Young in Lang's Red Book of Animal Stories, and Restoring Prehistoric Monsters in Uncle Sam Wonderworker by Dupuis.

Here are some more conclusions they draw from certain facts.