Kansas DNiyERsiTY Science Bulletin. 



Vol. IV, No. 10. SEPTEMBER, 1908. { ^oTxiv?So.To: 



RESTORATION OF THE SKELETON OF BISON 



OCCIDENTALIS. 



BY C. E. McCLUNG. 



(Contribution from the Zoological Laboratory, No. 177.) 



Plate XIV. 



ONE of the most interesting- and striking specimens in the 

 paleontological museum has just been placed in its case. 

 This is a specimen of the extinct Bison occidentalis, collected 

 and mounted by Mr. H. T. Martin. This, I believe, is the first 

 time that a complete skeleton of one of our ancient bisons has 

 been assembled, and the technical excellence with w^hich the 

 mounting has been done by Mr. Martin is worthy of this dis- 

 tinction. The skull of this specimen has been described by 

 Mr. Alban Stewart under the name of Bison antiquus (Kansas 

 University Quarterly, vol. 6, No. 3), and by Mr. F. A. Lucas 

 (Proceedings of the United States National Museum, vol. 21, 

 1899) as Bison occidentalis. For this reason a detailed descrip- 

 tion of the cranium is hardly necessary. For the sake of com- 

 pleteness a statement of the circumstances connected with the 

 discovery of the specimen will be given, although this has also 

 been reported by Dr. S. W. Williston. 



Particular importance attaches to the finding of this speci- 

 men, for during its removal an Indian arrow-head was dis- 

 covered beneath the right scapula. I give Mr. Martin's own 

 account of its history herewith : 



"In the summer of 1895 Mr. T. R. Overton and I were col- 

 lecting in the vicinity of Russell Springs, Logan county, Kan- 

 sas, when our attention was called to some mammalian teeth 

 found by Mr. Charles Wood. An examination of the teeth dis- 

 closed the fact that they belonged to an extinct form of bison. 



(249) 



