In his studies of the evolution of the carnivores Curator Davis, 

 of the Division of Vertebrate Anatomy, concentrated on the struc- 

 ture and mechanics of the jaw. The Borneo animals collected by 

 Curator Inger (see page 59) made revisions possible in the report of 

 Curator Davis on the mammals of North Borneo. The program 

 of research on placentation and fetal membranes of primitive mam- 

 mals being conducted by Dr. Waldemar Meister, Associate, and 

 Davis was continued, and material from a second species of tree- 

 shrew has been sectioned and is being studied. Dr. R. M. Strong, 

 Research Associate, continued his studies of the anatomy of birds. 



Dr. Charles A. Reed, of the University of Illinois, began a pro- 

 gram of research on the origin of domestic mammals. His work 

 is based on extensive materials collected in Iraq by the Iraq-Jarmo 

 Archaeological Expedition (1954-55) of the Oriental Institute and 

 the University of Chicago (see Annual Report 1955, page 63). 



Accessions— Zoology 



The largest single accession this year in the Division of Mammals 

 was a lot of nearly 800 specimens representing about 70 species from 

 Kenya and Tanganyika contributed by Field Associate Hoogstraal. 

 Collecting done by him and other entomologists has effected a quiet 

 revolution in the objectives of securing specimens of mammals in 

 the field. Until recently, most mammal collectors preserved only 

 parts or the entire body of the animal and ignored its parasites. 

 Understandably, mammalian parasitologists could not remain 

 passive in the face of a situation that deprived them of their only 

 source of material and information and so they themselves entered 

 wholeheartedly into the arduous game of collecting mammals and 

 studying their habits and habitats, all for the purpose of increasing 

 knowledge of parasites. Hoogstraal, a well-known parasitologist 

 and entomologist, is not only a leader in the field of mammal-host 

 collectors, but his mammal collections are of outstanding excellence. 

 All his host specimens are contributed to the Museum so that our 

 specialists may determine the names of the animals harboring the 

 parasites that interest him. As a result, the Museum has received 

 more mammals from expeditions conducted by Hoogstraal than from 

 any other single source. The specimens, which number well over 

 11,000, are from such diverse lands as the Philippines, New Guinea, 

 Turkey, Yemen, Madagascar, the Sudan, Egypt, and Africa. 

 The most notable accession of birds for the year was the Koelz 

 Collection of 20,591 birds of Iran, Afghanistan, India, and Nepal 



62 



