FOSSIL FISHES IN THE COLLECTION OF THE UNITED 

 STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



By Charles R. Eastman. 



Of the American Museum, of Natural History, New York City. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The collection of fossil fishes belonging to the United States 

 National Museum, although not extensive, is a representative series, 

 comprismg characteristic species from aU of the main geological time 

 divisions from the Ordovician onward, and including about 170 type- 

 specimens and other important material which has served in the 

 description of species or determination of geological horizons. The 

 greater part of the material was obtained under the auspices of the 

 United States geological surveys and exploring expeditions, and a 

 large quantity of fish remams was added to the collection through the 

 acquisition of a number of miportant private collections, like those of 

 Lesquereux, Lacoe, Sherwood, and others. Some foreign material, 

 from various horizons, but chiefly Mesozoic and Tertiary, was 

 acquired at different times by exchange or purchase. 



Prior to the installation of the collection of fossil vertebrates m the 

 new building of the United States National Museum the fishes had not 

 been systematically studied, nor even fully accessible nor arranged, 

 owing to lack of space accommodations; and until eight years ago no 

 published list had been prepared of the important type-specimens it 

 contains. In 1905, under the direction of Dr. George P. Merrill, a 

 catalogue of the type specimens of fossil invertebrates, by Charles 

 Schuchert and associates, was published by the museum, and two 

 years later this was foUowed by a second part, includmg the type 

 specimens of fossil vertebrates and fossil plants. ^ The second part of 

 this Catalogue records a wealth of material upon which Leidy, Cope, 

 and Marsh founded much of their early work in vertebrate paleon- 

 tology. 



1 Catalogue of the type and figured specimens of Fossils, Minerals, Rocks and Ores, etc. Part 2. Fossil 

 Vertebrates, Fossil Plants, etc. Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 53, pt. 2, 1907. 



PROCEEDINGS U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM, VOL. 52-NO. 2177. 



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