THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



since the acquisition in 1895 of the Cope Mammal Collection, 

 and as to fossil invertebrates for many years by the possession of 

 the James Hall Collection. 



This new collection of reptiles, et cetera, covers the history of 

 vertebrate life upon the American continent for a period esti- 

 mated by geologists at seventeen millions of years. It contains 

 animals of all kinds, terrestrial, fresh-water and marine, from the 

 primitive fish of the Devonian period and the earliest air-breathers 

 of the Red Beds of Texas, to the great horned and hornless Di- 

 nosaurs of the Upper Cretaceous and the small reptiles of Tertiary 

 time which are the ancestors of the reptiles of the present day. 

 Among the fishes are found some of the types upon which Cope 

 based his re-classification of the group. The amphibia from the 

 Permian or Red Beds are the most ancient of land vertebrates. 

 They vary in size from that of a salamander to a large alligator 

 with broad, flat heads. Associated with these forms are the 

 most ancient types of Lizards, related to the ancestors of the 

 Dinosaurs. 



From the chalk beds of Kansas and eastern Colorado there 

 are many specimens of the Mosasaurs which inhabited the 

 mediterranean sea occupying that part of America during the 

 Cretaceous period. Among these are many of the types used by 

 Professor Cope in his description of species. A nearly complete 

 skeleton, more than forty feet in length, of the long-necked 

 Plesiosaur recalls one of the historic controversies between Pro- 

 fessor Marsh and Professor Cope. The former gentleman suc- 

 ceeded, as is now known, in demonstrating that the latter had 

 placed the head of this animal upon the end of its tail. 



From the Upper Cretaceous or Laramie, besides one of Pro- 

 fessor Cope's types of horned Dinosaurs there is a magnificent 

 skeleton of Hadrosaur known as Dicloniiis mirabilis, the bones of 

 which arc in an unusually fine state of prcser\'ation. This speci- 

 men will be miiuntod free of the matrix, and it is of such large 

 proportions (thirty-eight feet in length) that it will be even more 

 imposing than the famous Iguanodons in the Museum at Brus- 

 sels, to which it is somewhat closely related. 



The finest specimen from the Jurassic is Cope's type of the 



