1 2 2 THE A ME RICA N MUSE UM JO I ^RNA L 



FIELD WORK OF THE DEPARTMENT OF VERTEBRATE 



PALAEONTOLOGY 



I HE Department of Vertebrate Paleontology has 

 three expeditions in the field for the season. One, 

 under the leadership of Mr. Barnum Brown, will 

 continue the search for Dinosaurs in the Cretaceous 

 beds of Montana which has been prosecuted during 

 the last two years with considerable success. Several very valu- 

 able specimens have already been obtained in this region, which 

 was first brought to the attention of this Museum by Dr. W. T. 

 Hornaday, director of the New York Zoological Park, Bronx 

 Park. The most remarkable of these specimens is the gigantic 

 carnivorous Dinosaur which Professor Osborn has named Tyran- 

 nosaurus, and of which he expects shortly to publish an extended 

 description and restoration. A large part of the skeleton in 

 splendid preservation has been found, and it is hoped that further 

 quarrying in the hill where these remains were discovered will 

 bring to light the remainder of the skeleton, so that it can be 

 mounted. A fine skeleton of a Duckbilled Dinosaur found by 

 ranchmen in the same region has been purchased by the Museum 

 and will be disinterred and brought to New York this year. 

 Other prospects already located are to be investigated, and a 

 diligent search made for more. It is especially desirable to obtain 

 a skeleton of the Horned Dinosaur Triceratops, of w^hich we have 

 already a fine skull from this region. 



A second party under Mr. Walter Granger will continue the 

 search for fossil mammals in the Eocene formations of Wyoming. 

 The American Museum already possesses unrivaled collections 

 from these formations, and it is desired to round out and com- 

 plete them as fully as possible by thorough and systematic search 

 in all the known localities where they occur. These fossils are of 

 much scientific and considerable popular interest, since they 

 represent the early stages in the evolution of the various races 

 of mammals which now inhabit the earth as well as of the others 

 which have become extinct. Mr. Granger's explorations in the 

 Bridger basin during the last three seasons have already added 

 largely to our collections, and the careful records and observ^a- 

 tions of our parties will help to solve several puzzling problems. 



