DIVISION OF VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY — GILMORE 339 



1936-37, Dallas: Skeletons of Dlatryma gUjus Cope and Qlyptosaurus yiyan- 

 teus Gilmore. Distal half of a hadrosaurian Corythosaurus skeleton 

 with skin impressions and a complete tail of Camarasaurus all pur- 

 chased. Life restoration (canvas 8 by 15 feet) and a model restoration 

 of Camarasaums lentus Marsh, painted by R. Bruce Ilorsfall. Restora- 

 tion of Permian life, canvas 8 by 15 feet, with Dimctrodon as the domi- 

 nant figure, painted by Garnet W. Jex, and a diorama illustrative of 

 the dinosaurian life of the Morrison formation. 



EXHIBITS 



The earliest exhibition of extinct vertebrate animals made by the 

 Smithsonian Institution consisted of plaster casts of the giant sloth 

 Megatherium, cuvien, the large land tortoise Colossochelys atlas^ and 

 the South American glyptodon Schistopleurum typus^ which were 

 "set up" in the large room of the Smithsonian Institution in 1871. 

 In 1872, a skeleton of the Pleistocene Irish elk {Megaceros hihemicvs) , 

 which had been purchased from Thomas & Sons, of Philadelphia, in 

 1868, was mounted and placed on view, and this specimen thus has 

 the distinction of being the first articulated skeleton of an extinct 

 animal to be placed on public exhibition in the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion."- At this same time a model restoration of the Irish elk was 

 placed on deposit by Waterhouse Hawkins. 



With the completion of the new building in 1881 (now known as 

 the Arts and Industries Building), the Irish elk, the Megatherium^ 

 and other large casts were transferred to it from the Smithsonian. 

 These, together with a few fragmentary specimens from the Western 

 States, resulting from the early Government surveys, constituted for a 

 time the principal part of the exhibition series. A skeletal restoration 

 of the famous Hadrosauims fouJkii^ from the original in the Acad- 

 emy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, also formed a part of 

 this early exhibition of extinct animals. An old photograph taken 

 some time after the occupancy of the new building shows the Hacl- 

 Tosawnis associated with the skeletal cast of the Megatherium- and 

 skeletons of recent animals. No record has been found of this speci- 

 men, but Dr. Schuchert, under date of May 18, 1939, writes: "This 

 restoration of Ha/lrosaurus was made for the United States National 

 Museum for the Centennial Exposition. When I joined the National 

 Museum, Dr. Goode told me the Hadrosaurus had long stood in front 

 of the Museum and had weathered so badly that it was destroyed 

 a few years before my arrival in 1893." Following the organization 



22 A curious coincidence is the fact that the lirst skeh-ton to he exhibited (1844) in the 

 British Museum was also a skeleton of Mcfjaceros hiberniciis. Skeletons of the "Irish elk" 

 were the first to be exliibited in both the American Museum of Natural History. New York 

 City, and the Carnegie IMusenm in Pittsburgh. 



