EXPLORATIONS FOR FOSSIL VERTEBRATES. 561 



WESTERN EXPLORATIONS FOR EOSSIL VERTEBRATES. 



Bv Dr. HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN, 

 GEOLOGIST AND PALEONTOLOGIST, U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



/~\WING to the establishment of new natural history museums in 

 ^-^ different parts of the United States, western exploration for the 

 past history of the reptilian and mammalian life of North America 

 is becoming more active and energetic every year. Formerly (between 

 1869 and 1877) the only explorations of this character were conducted 

 by Professor Cope, of Philadelphia, one of the ablest zoologists and 

 anatomists this country has produced, and by the still more widely 

 known Professor Marsh, of Yale College. The fossils came in so 

 rapidly that, while rousing keen scientific interest, they could not be 

 placed on exhibition for the benefit of the public. In 1877 Princeton 

 College began its series of western trips under Professor Scott and the 

 present writer. Then Kansas University, under the able leadership of 

 Professor S. W. Williston, went actively into the field, chiefly in the 

 old Cretaceous sea bottom of western Kansas. 



In 1890 the American Museum of Natural History of New York 

 paved the way for a new order of things, by initiating a series of ex- 

 plorations on a large scale into different regions of the west, and placing 

 the fossils on public exhibition as rapidly as possible. 



The next comer was the Carnegie Museum of Pittsburgh, which, 

 under the active direction of Dr. Holland, secured as a leader Dr. J. L. 

 Wortman, who had proved his unusual abilities in this line, first by 

 his wonderful discoveries in the Big Horn Mountains in northern 

 Wyoming and elsewhere in the service of Professor Cope, and later in 

 the service of the American Museum of Natural History. The work 

 of the Carnegie Museum, however, soon passed into the hands of Mr. 

 J. B. Hatcher, another explorer of the highest ability, who had previ- 

 ously gained a world-wide reputation by his exploration of the fossil 

 beds of Patagonia in the interests of Princeton. The death of Mr. 

 Hatcher during the summer of 1904 was a very great blow to American 

 paleontology. Under Wortman, Hatcher and Peterson the collections 

 at the Carnegie Museum have grown apace, and the museum now has 

 an almost unique collection of the gigantic amphibious dinosaurs, 

 reptiles from fifty to eighty feet in length, which inhabited the shore 

 lines of the nascent Rocky Mountains in the. Jurassic period. When 

 the new portion of this great museum is completed and sufficient space 

 is provided, it is proposed to mount some of these great animals com- 



VOL. LXVII. — 35. 



