36 MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY 



for exhibition. The skull of Boettneria in the pedestal case is that of 

 an early Amphibian and is marvellously preserved. It was taken 

 from out of a very hard and refractory rock and required many 

 months of the most skillful work to remove. Several skulls repre- 

 senting groups of extinct reptiles are very unusually perfect. 



Room 155 



Fossil Vertebrates 



The central group are Pliocene types from the Pampean forma- 

 tions of Argentina. These specimens were collected for Alexander 

 Agassiz by Professor H. A. Ward and represent, unfortunately, but 

 part of the collection secured, a large part having been lost when an- 

 other ship bringing them north foundered off Fire Island, New York. 

 The Panochthus, a Giant Armadillo-like animal, is very fine, and 

 the Toxodon almost uniquely complete. The three genera of sloths 

 are likewise noteworthy. 



In this room there are also exhibited fossil birds. The skeleton of 

 the great flightless Aepyornis of Madagascar, which is supposed to 

 have given rise to the legend of the Roc, is shown near the similar but 

 somewhat distantly related Moas of New Zealand. The remains of 

 the Dodo from Mauritius and the Solitaire of Rodriquez Island, in 

 the Indian Ocean, represent giant flightless pigeons. Two impor- 

 tant and unique types of fossil birds are Palaeospiza and Gallinu- 

 loides. These are wonderfully preserved and are among the great 

 treasures of the Museum. In this room the fossil fishes form a con- 

 tinuous systematic sequence with those in room 154. This exhibit of 

 fossil fish is the most important representation of any vertebrate 

 group possessed by the Museum. It is supplemented by the material 

 in the study collections, but since fossils do not usually deteriorate, 

 many of the finest specimens have been placed on public exhibition. 

 This policy is not generally pursued in other departments of this 

 Museum. 



Room 153 

 Fossil Vertebrates 



In the center of the room is a group of mastodon remains — 

 classics of their sort, for these are some of the specimens studied by 

 Dr. John C. Warren and Professor Jeffries Wyman some eighty years 



