DIVISION OF VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY GILMORE 323 



EXPEDITIONS 



Since the inception of the Division of Vertebrate Paleontology, it 

 has profited from no less than 68 major ^'^ collecting expeditions, of 

 which about 30 were financed and directed by the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution or the National Museum. Funds for the others were furnished 

 by private sponsors or by other Government agencies. Of the latter, 

 the United States Geological Survey has been the outstanding 

 contributor. 



The first expeditions organized by the United States National Mu- 

 seum exchisively for the collection of fossil vertebrates were those of 

 1894 and 1896 to the Eocene of Alabama for Basilosaurus remains. 

 Reports of an abundance of archaeocete remains in the Gulf States 

 instigated the 1894 expedition, and Dr. Charles Schuchert was de- 

 tailed to investigate these and to collect if possible a specimen for 

 exhibition. He was successful in finding a much fragmented skull 

 and a fine ramus of one and the forward half of the articulated 

 skeleton of a second individual of BasiJosaurms, together with other 

 less important specimens. This material formed the basis for the 

 restoration of the Basilosaunis cetoides skeleton exhibited at the 

 Cotton States and International Exposition at Atlanta in 1895. In 

 November 1896 Schuchert again visited the Eocene of Alabama and 

 collected additional materials of Basllosofiirws, including an articu- 

 lated series of vertebrae of the hinder portion of the skeleton. From 

 these specimens was assembled the mounted skeleton that for 28 years 

 has formed a unique feature of the exhibition series. 



In 1904, under A. G. Maddren, and again in 1907, under Charles 

 W. Gilmore, expeditions were dispatched to Alaska by the Smithso- 

 nian in the hope of securing a mountable skeleton of the northern 

 mammoth {Elephas pi^imigenius) . Although neither expedition was 

 successful in getting an elephant skeleton, important collections of 

 Pleistocene fossils resulted. 



This quest for elephant remains was further pursued in 1915, 

 when Benno Alexander was employed by the Smithsonian to accom- 

 pany the Koren expedition to the Kolyma River Valley, Siberia. Mr. 

 Alexander obtained a nearly perfect skull of Elephas pHmigemius 

 and a large miscellaneous collection of Pleistocene bones. 



Scarcely a year has passed since 1912 when there has not been at 

 least one expedition in the field in quest of fossil vertebrates. Begin- 

 ning in 1929, however, the Smithsonian Institution has provided 

 the means for carrying on annual expeditions, and it has thereby 

 been possible to plan a definite program. Geographically the ex- 



^ By major expeditions is meant those collecting parties that have spent 2 or more- 

 months in the field and whose energies were wholly devoted to the coUectio^n of fossil 

 vertebrates. 



