THE COLLECTION OF FOSSIL \'ERTEBRATES. 



Bv \V. D. Matthew, Ph.D.. 



Associate Curator, Department of Vertebrate Paheontology. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



Introduction 5 



What Fossils Are. The Divisions of Geological Time. How Fossil Skele- 

 tons are Mounted and Exhibited in this Hall. General Arrange- 

 ment of the Collections. 



East Corridor. No. 405. Fossil Marine Reptiles 10 



How they come to be Buried, Fossilized, Found and Collected. Ple- 

 siosaurs. Mosasaurs. Ichthyosaurs. Fishes. 



East Wing. No. 406. Fossil Mammnls 12 



Arrangement. Titanotheres. Rhinoceroses. Horses. Primitive 

 Hoofed Mammals. Primitive Clawed Maminals. Elepha-nts, 

 Mammoths and Mastodons. Artiodactyls. South American 

 Fossil Mammals. Instances of Evolution. Restorations. Trans- 

 parencies. Charts, etc. 



East Wing. No. 407 26 



Fossil Reptiles. 



Dinosaurs: Amphibious, Carnivorous, Beaked. Crocodiles. Lizards. 

 Turtles. Primitive Reptiles. 



Fossil Amphibians. Stegocephalia 31 



Fossil Fishes. Dinichthys. Green River Fishes 32 



In'TKODUCTIOX. 



When" we dig beneath the present surface of the ground we 

 sometimes find remains of ancient cities, dwelHngs, bones of men 

 and animals, buried many centuries ago under accumulations of 

 debris, deposits (.if river mud or drifted sand. From these have 

 been gleaned many facts concerning the early history of man- 

 kind of which there is no written chronicle. From the study of 

 these facts the science of ArchjEolog}- has arisen, the science 

 which deals with the earh' history of mankind, with the evolu- 

 tion of civilization. 



Most of the lower animals of which the archaeologist finds 

 traces are like those now living, although a few have what Fos- 

 become extinct. But in those more ancient deposits siis Are. 

 which arc now consolidated into clays, sandstones etc., indica- 



5 



