Petrified

Not so many thousand years before
These old rocks were the bones of the haplocanthosaur
Old old rocks
Tall as a house
Might’ve been gentle as a mouse
Bare bones are petrified
Later they are classified
A skeleton may indicate but imagination animates
The mind’s eye does need to see
The fluid grace and subtlety
Animals fitted perfectly to a world not like the one we see
The bones of a flying animal now called the pterosaur
Have been found a hundred miles from the presumed seashore
Old old rocks
One kind had teeth like a whale
One kind had a hair covering
One kind would’ve been 37 feet wing to wing
Bare bones are petrified
Later they are classified
A skeleton may indicate but imagination animates
The mind’s eye does need to see
The fluid grace and subtlety
Animals fitted perfectly to a world not like the one we see
Here’s the sort of bird that we don’t see
In some of the books it’s not treated quite respectfully
Old old rocks
Has the short end of the stick
Been given archaeopteryx?