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?