BETS

Movies and Fiction May Be Surpassed by Real Discoveries Huge dinosaur* that roam*
* . « * * * * * * * * * * * * * •d the earth million* of
year* ago are brought to life
en the screen In "The Lost
Expedition to South America Investigating Weird Reports World," produced by Earl
Hudson.
Two •peclmene of the**
time to time Professor monster* a* they appear In
flnd prehistoric creatures, reports this fantastic photoplay, the
Dr. Matthew,1Noted Scientist, Discusses Possibilities of a living pleseosanrus were still Riggs has been submit- chief locale of which i* South
coming in from the region of Chu- ting reports on the, America, are reproduced on
of Finding Living Dinosaurs There and but. Although the finding of fos- progress of the expedi- this page and give a most
graphic Idea 61 the dlfflcul.
Makes Startling Statements. sils of extinct creatures was his
chief object. Professor Riggs be-
tion to Dr. W D. Mat- tie* that even a modern ex-
thew, chief paleontolo- pedition of explorer*, would
fore his departure declared, jest- gist of the fossils de- be up against shsuld they
ingly or otherwise, to Professor encounter their descendant*
DOES "THE LOST WORLD" REALLY EXIST? Onelli that "If I meet a dinosaur
of any kM I'll put a lariat around
partment of the Ameri-
can Museum of Natural in the present age. -
his neck and lead him to the zoo." History in .New York.
IHE human race, as we know it now, is certain to dis- The Riggs party pro-
I appear from the earth within a million or so years. ceeded to Rio Galle-
This is the startling statement made by Dr. W. D. gos from whence Been* on the banks
it journeyed
Matthew, chief paleontologist of the fossils depart- of the Amazon.
ment of the American Museum of Natural History.
Another astounding declaration by the noted scientist
is that there is a perfectly reasonable possibility that
descendants of certain types of prehistoric creatures
hitherto believed to be extinct may still be living and roam-
ing wild unexplored sections of the globe.
Strange things happen in the mov-
ies. In the First Nationalfilmver- bird, fish or reptile known to be
sion of Conan Doyle's "The Lost alive within man's memory.
A little over two years ago this
World." for example, an adventur- creature was first said to be wal-
ous party of explorers comes upon lowing in the mud of the Andean
living dinosaurs in South America. .Lake region; then, more recent-
After the most harrowing experi- ly, it was reported roaming the
region o£ Chubut in the unex-
ences they capture one of these plored territory of the Ar-
' huge monsters and take it alive to gentine.
..London, where it escapes, runs The creature has been
amuck in Piccadilly, bowls over variously described as
pedestrians and omnibuses, and in great griffin, a giant
general terrorizes the city. sloth, an awesome
It is a strange, fantastic tale that
intrigues one's interest and per-
haps taxes one's credulity, but fact, », ^~ '*..-
as has otten been said, is some-
times stranger than fiction There Found: A brttntosauruil
seems to be ground for the possi-
bility that to-called prehistoric
creatures of enormous size and

>nts and giant sloths could be

two, though the diplodocns runs to
a greater length, having a long,
rVf snaky neck and a smaller head.
The reconstructed fossils of one
~"ln~l«'?eSrSj^veals that It is 87 toet
ST. Matthew was aomewhaTskep-
tical as to the explorer's chance of
The blood-thirsty •llosaurus, finding alive one of tha larger spe-
also known as the tyran- cies of dinosaur. "But of course,1
nosaurus, charges. he qualified, "we can't always fore-
tell what may happen, and we can
only await Professor Riggs' re-
port."
"It is perfectly possible, how-
ever," said Dr. Matthew, "that liv-
ing giant sloths and glyptodonts,
descended from prehistoric times,
might be found. The giant sloth
was simply a larger edition of the
present day sloth, a matured speci-
men weighing Irom ten to twelve
tons. The glyptodonts were arma-
dillo-like creatures, with a massive
shell around the short, solid body.
The body would be about six feet
in length plus a tail eight to nine
feet in length. An average glypto-
dont would probably weigh about
two tons Fossils of the giant sloth
have been found in this country.
The heel bone of one was found by
A. R. LeDoux, -while in swimming
at Long Branch in 1870, and TV as
presented by him to the American
'and m South America?"
["Because the fossils ot these
fossil finds, according to satures found there show that
Matthew. ay could not have been dead for
'It is the general rule that , jvery l°no There is evidence also
time all races ot creatures disa it the giant trtoth-iad. «•»»«>»»•;•
pear," said Dr. Matthew, when as| >n domesticated by man. B«-
ed why he was skeptical about tb :ins of extraordinary treslmess
reported existence today of dm ive been, found near Last Hope
saur types. Lt oft the Straits of Magellan.
"Do you mean by that, thei* -As to rumors ot living dmo-
that m time the human race wl"' turs these come out about every
disappear?" he was asked.
'Yes," he replied, "the hums.
ace will disappear as we know i
today, it may continue In a differ
ent form, but the human being wiii
not look or act or be the same as
is today, tve perhaps wouldn.t
our descendants of a
t is the°h m°re ySarS fr°m now-
th
° ,aISwould not be warmly wel-
Since you admit that the human
being may continue living millions
of years from no-w. though in a dif- tive bo a tyrannosaurus, a great
ferent form. Isn't it possible then
t at the descendants at great dino- thing reartnE tw enty feet high that
mrs of ages ago are still living
oday in South America, though in V
different form, which may an
ount for the strange descriptions
rven them?"
' Your point is very w ell taken,"
ephed the noted scientist. "V, hen

THT LOST
WORLD

•tfflBKth etin Inhabit the earth. At variety of snake and as a dino-1

any rate, the scientific world is
seeking conclusive evidence along
that line.
Tha possibility that descendants
of the great reptilian dinosaurs of
the Messozolc and Jurassic
A*es still Hv* is from time to time
given impetus by reports from va-
rious isolated sections of the
world. These have come spasmodi-
cally from i such regions as Mongo-
lia Africa, and even the frigid
zones. The latest field of rumors
is South America.
For two years Professor Elmer
S. Rige* of the Field Museum. Chi-
cago, has been down in South
America searching for fossils, and,
Incidentally, looking for living dino-
saurs, it any exist. Ha is still
there.
Of course, the main purpose of
Professor Riggs' expedition has
been to flnd fossils. But at the
same time he has been investigat-
ln« the reports ot travelers telling
of glimpses they have haJ c-r n.
ttra*(« monster, unlike any sort of
saurus. One description outlines
it as a turtle with a swish-
ing tail, flappers or fins for
legs, an immense protruding neck,
as long as its body, at the end ot
which it wags a comparatively
small head, principally mouth, well
equipped with a double row ot
sharply pointed bent teeth The
monster was said to bo perhaps
twenty feet long. It Is hardly
strange that the few wayfarers who
have reported seeing it did not re
main long in its vicinity, and it is
perhaps no less strange that their
descriptions vary.
These stories fascinated Profes-
sor Riggs. He fitted dut a beast
and fossil hunting expedition and
sailed from Buenos Ayres for Pat-
agonia on December 22, 1922 Be-
fore sailing Professor Rlgss called
on Professor Clement Onelli, Direc-
to" of tho Buenos .\>res Zoological
GardPn, and obtained from him in-
formation about the reported mon-
ster. Professor Onelli told him
that, in spite of the failure ot a
group of Argentine explorers to
northward on horseback along
the coasL ot tho territory ot Santa
Cruz In this region they remain-
ed through the entire southern
summer, and then Professor Rises
and his companions moved north-
ward and into the interior, going
even to southern Bolivia, in search
of pleistocene specimens and the
living dinosaur itself At tho time
the expedition started out Pro-
fessor Riggs expected to remain in
Argentina about a year and a half
Two years have passed, and Pro-
fessor RlRRS is still there. At pres-
ent he is believed to bo in the wilds
of Patagonia, and he is not expect-
ed to return to America before
spring Whether or not he has
come upon the living dinosaur has
not >et been made known, but from
"It can be said, however, without
any breach oc confidence," declared
Dr Matthew the other day. "that
Professor' Riggs has made some
very iu.luable fossil finds in South
America As to the nature of these
finds and tho results of his inves-
tigation of reports of the existence
of a supposedly living dinosaur the
pubhc must -».iit until Professor
RiKKs is prepared to make known
his d.scoverles It is safe to say,
ho»e\or, that Professor Riggs
shall have something \ery interest-
ing to submit."
Among the larger dinosaurs, ac-
cording to Dr Matthew, it is
gfneralH the fossils of either the
brontosaurus or the dlplodocus that
are found in South America. The
brontosaurus is the heavier ot the
"-.v;
Museum ot Natural History In
1919."
Dr. Matthew said some particu-
larly fine specimens of dinosaur
had been found in Patagonia quite
recently. A number ot these ot
tho brontosaurus type, ho said
ranged from 60 to 80 feet in length
Some years ago a great collection
of fossils ot the giant ground sloth
and the toxodont. a creature that
looked like a rhmocerous, was
found in the caves of southern Bra- The elephant
3uns of Wallace B<lry, Arthur Hoyt, Lewis Stone, Lloyd
zil and more recently in another nugnes and Bessie Love are lout as effective as Pea-Shooters.
part of Brazil a further collection ]
of similar fossils was secured hv
that
stalked around on Its hind legs and
Dr O C. Farrington for the Field t It
a possible t h i n e b"it "(\\ ran faster than any horse, vre would
Museum of Natural History South > oliable that it is almo-t Imll have our troubles keeping his hun-
ern Bolivia, the Purus River reqion
ger appeased. He could swallow a
in western Brazil, Ecuador, "Then vt do VON deer at a gulp About six might
and Chili have given up valuable fectly po^ b]c tlm „
make him ono meal."

L.-.-.'T-'JiW