The theory that it is the accumulation of a flood is, in my opinion, improbable, because a flood would tend to bring entire skeletons down together, distribute them widely, and bury them rapidly.

A more likely theory is that this was the area of an old river-bar, which in its shallow waters arrested the more or less decomposed and scattered carcasses which had slowly drifted down-stream toward it, including a great variety of dinosaurs, crocodiles, and turtles, collected from many points up-stream.

Thus were brought together the animals of a whole region, a fact which vastly enhances the interest of this deposit.
_The Giant Herbivorous Dinosaurs._ By far the most imposing of these animals are those which may be popularly designated as the great or giant dinosaurs.

The name, derived from _deinos_ terrible, and _sauros_ lizard, refers to the fact that they appeared externally like enormous lizards, with very long limbs, necks, and tails.

They were actually remotely related to the tuatera lizard of New Zealand, and still more remotely to the true lizards.
No land animals have ever approached these giant dinosaurs in size, and naturally the first point of interest is the architecture of the skeleton.