DIVISION OF VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY — GILMORE 337 



stone made, respectively, by Dr. G. A. Williams, of Booneville, Mo., 

 and Lisbon A. Cox, of Keokuk, Iowa. These were purchased by 

 Mr. Springer and turned over to Mr. St. John together with his own, 

 for use in his researches. 



Among other notable items in this important collection is a very 

 exceptional specimen from the Coal Measures of Kansas, the com- 

 plete dentition of a large Paleozoic shark in a more perfect state 

 of preservation than has ever been found elsewhere. This type 

 of Canvpodus {Agassizodus) varmhiUs, described in volume 4 of the 

 Illinois Reports, is regarded by ichthyologists as without a parallel 

 among its kind. 



Teller collection. — The Teller collection of invertebrates and fossil 

 fishes was assembled by the late Edgar E. Teller, of Milwaukee, Wis. 

 The entire assemblage, w^ith his library, was received as a gift in 

 1924 from Mrs. Edgar E. Teller. The fish remains, consisting of 

 about 100 specimens, are all from the Devonian and all were collected 

 in and around Milwaukee. Included in the collection are a number 

 of figured specimens. 



Palmer collection. — The Palmer collection consisted entirely of 

 Miocene vertebrate fossils gathered by William Palmer, taxidermist 

 and naturalist in the United States National Museum, from the 

 Calvert formation along Chesapeake Bay, Md., It was purchased 

 by the Smithsonian Institution from his widow shortly after his 

 death in 1921. Throughout most of his life Mr. Palmer was an 

 indefatigable collector of natural-history specimens, but from 1908 

 to the time of his death his interests were largely devoted to the 

 collection of Miocene vertebrate fossils. Many of the specimens 

 secured were at once turned over to the Division of Vertebrate 

 Paleontology as gifts and were described by Dr. F. W. True, but a 

 considerable accumulation of specimens, including several extinct 

 porpoise skulls, most of them prepared, formed the basis of the 

 l^urchase. 



Certain assemblages are outstanding, not only because of the quan- 

 tity of materials represented but more especially because of the high 

 quality of the preservation. Among these is the fossil cetacean collec- 

 tion, which ranks first among aggregations of the kind in American 

 museums. The bulk of this assemblage is from the prolific nearby 

 Miocene deposits of the Chesapeake Bay area, but the Gulf and Pacific 

 coasts are also represented by many well-preserved specimens. This 

 collection has resulted from the enthusiastic volunteer work of a con- 

 siderable number of collaborators of which the more active were : Head 

 Curator Frederick W. True, who pioneered in this work, about 

 1905-14; William Palmer, 1907-19; Norman H. Boss, 1914-35; Eem- 

 ington Kellogg, 1923^0; and E. L. Collins, 1935-38. 



292963—41 3 



