formic acid a number of the insect-bearing Miocene concretions from 

 the Mojave Desert (see page 63). The insects, preserved three- 

 dimensionally in acid-insoluble minerals, are microscopic, some no 

 longer than one-fiftieth of an inch. The specimens, which were 

 sorted according to species, were mounted for permanent reference. 



George Langford, Curator of Fossil Plants, concentrated his 

 work on the Museum's large and representative plant collections 

 from the Pennsylvanian of Will and Grundy counties, Illinois. He 

 also worked on the flora of the Upper Cretaceous and Lower Eocene 

 of the southern states, giving special attention to new species, many 

 of which he described and drew or photographed. His manuscript 

 on the Wilmington coal flora on which he labored for more than two 

 decades was published during the year by the Earth Science Club 

 of Northern Illinois (see page 107). A voluminous work of 360 pages 

 illustrated by 455 photographs and 200 drawings, it should be of 

 great service to all interested in the Pennsylvanian flora. 



Dr. Robert H. Denison, Curator of Fossil Fishes, devoted much 

 of his time to a study of the Lower Devonian fishes from Ohio in 

 the collection of Dr. J. Ernest Carman (see Annual Report 1956, 

 page 56). The sorting and preparation of hundreds of specimens, 

 which had been a time-consuming but a rewarding task, furnished a 

 large amount of material of one species that he needed for the par- 

 ticular type of study in which he was engaged — a study of growth 

 and variation. He also made a restoration of the shield of a small 

 Lower Devonian arthrodire, Bryantolepis, from Wyoming. 



William D. Turnbull, Assistant Curator of Fossil Mammals, 

 worked on the introduction to his proposed report on the mam- 

 malian fauna of the Washakie formation of Wyoming, which con- 

 tains a historical review of the previous work done on the vertebrate 

 faunas and a section on the geology of the region. Accompanied by 

 David Collier, who had volunteered to assist him in the field, he 

 returned to the Washakie basin for about two months during the 

 summer and completed the field survey of the stratigraphy and 

 geology of the area (see page 40). Noteworthy among materials 

 collected were a uintathere pelvis, a crocodile skull, a mammalian 

 microfauna, and two partial skeletons, one a primate the other a 

 taeniodont. Turnbull also made progress in his studies of the 

 adaptive types of mammalian masticatory apparatus and, in rela- 

 tion to this, he dissected and studied the jaw musculature of a 

 representative of each of the three major rodent groups. 



Since joining the staff in August, Bertram G. Woodland, Asso- 

 ciate Curator of Petrology, acquainted himself with the collections 

 in his care and did preparatory work in the Chemical Laboratory 



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