226 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



THE PRESENT PROBLEMS OF PALEONTOLOGY.* 



By HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN, 



DA COSTA PROFESSOR OF ZOOLOGY, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY. CURATOR OF VERTEBRATE 



PALEONTOLOGY, AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



GEOLOGIST AND PALEONTOLOGIST, UNITED 



STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



CONGRATULATE myself that it has fallen to my lot to set forth 

 -*- some of the chief contemporary problems of paleontology, as 

 well as to make an exposition of the prevailing methods of thought in 

 this branch of biology. At the same time I regret that I can cover 

 only one-half of the field, namely, that of the paleontology of the 

 vertebrates. From lack of time and of the special knowledge required 

 to do a great subject justice I am compelled to omit the science of 

 invertebrate fossils and the important biological inductions made by 

 the many able workers in this field. There is positively much in com- 

 mon between the inductions derived from vertebrate and invertebrate 

 evolution and I believe a great service would be rendered to biology by 

 a philosophical comparison and contrast of the methods and results of 

 vertebrate and invertebrate paleontology. 



The science of vertebrate fossils is in an extremely healthy state at 

 present. The devotees of the science were never more numerous, never 

 more inspired and certainly never so united in aim as at present. We 

 have suffered some heavy personal losses, not only among the chiefs, 

 but among the younger leaders of the science in recent years; Cope, 

 Marsh, Zittel, Kowalevsky, Baur and Hatcher have gone, but they live 

 in their works and their influence, which vary with the peculiar or 

 characteristic genius of each. 



As in every other branch of science, problems multiply like the heads 

 of hydra ; no sooner is one laid low than a number of new ones appear ; 

 yet we stand on the shoulders of preceding generations, so that if our 

 philosophical vision be correct we gain a wider horizon, while the 

 horizon itself is constantly expanding by discovery. 



In discovery the chief theater of interest shifts from continent to 

 continent in an unexpected and almost sensational manner. In 1870, 

 all eyes were centered on North America and especially on Rocky 

 Mountain exploration; for many ensuing years, new and even un- 

 thought of orders of beings came to the surface of knowledge, revolu- 

 tionizing our thought, firmly establishing the evolution theory and 



* Address delivered before the Section of Zoology of the International Con- 

 gress of Arts and Science, September 22, 1904. 



