THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 
ie) 
ness. ‘Che American Museum has for some time had the promise of one 
of these, when its preparation should be completed. ‘The desired speci- 
men was recently received and is now on exhibition in the Marine 
Reptile Corridor on the fourth floor. It is believed to be the most 
perfect example of its kind known, and it illustrates well the remark- 
ably fish-like form of these marine reptiles. Although the structure of 
the skeleton, form and relation of the bones, shows that the Ichthyo- 
saurus was a true reptile, an air-breather and related to the lizards, 
snakes and crocodiles, yet it has taken on the form of a fish, converted 
its tail into a fin and its legs into fin-like paddies, in adaptation to its 
marine environment, just as the whales, dolphins and seals have done 
among modern mammals. This interesting comparison has been very 
well and clearly set forth by Professor Osborn in a recent article in the 
Century Magazine, and it is illustrated in the hall by drawings of the 
Shark, Ichthyosaur and Dolphin. 
W. D. Marrurw. 
A PRELIMINARY NOTICE OF THE FAYUM COLLECTION. 
HERE has recently been placed in the Hall of Vertebrate Palzeon- 
tology a special exhibit comprising some of the more important 
and interesting fossil mammals obtained by the expedition to 
the Fayfim, Egypt, during the winter and spring of 1907. A_ notice 
of the organization and departure of this expedition may be found in 
the Journar for February, 1907. The entire collection of about 600 
specimens arrived at the Museum last September, but the extremely deli- 
cate condition of many of the specimens renders the work of prepara- 
tion for preservation, study and exhibition a slow process and one to be 
carried on with the greatest care. 
in which was the ancient Lake Moeris— has 
The Faytim district 
long been famous in the history of ancient Egypt, on account of the 
traditions and records clustering around it. In recent years it has ac- 
quired a new interest from the finding along its northern border of rich 
fossil beds containing the remains of mammals which inhabited Africa 
in early Tertiary times but long since became extinct. The Faytm 
is a natural depression about 50 miles in diameter situated in the Libyan 
Desert, 50 to 75 miles southwest of Cairo and separated from the Nile 
valley by a narrow strip of desert. In early historic times the greater 
