RECENT PURCHASES OF FOSSIL VERTEBRATES 09 



animal. A part of the tail of the same species, now on exhibition in the 

 Dinosanr Hall, shows a consi(leral)le area of skin, much like that of 

 this skeleton, but with larger plates and no distinct pattern of spots. 

 Traces of the skin are preserved in several other kinds of extinct reptiles, 

 but nothing has been found that compares with this in its perfect 

 preservation. 



To all appearances, the animal must have died on some dry, sandy 

 spot exposed to the sun, so that the carcass dried and shrank to a natural 

 mummy. Then it must have })een suddenly buried by a flood of sand 

 from a freshet, so rapidly and deeply that the skin had no chance to 

 soften and decay, but was preserved and petrified with the bones. 

 This occurred three million years ago, on a moderate estimate of geologic 

 time. We think of the mummies of Egypt, three or four thousand years 

 old, as being of respectable anticjuity. Still more venerable are the 

 mammoths which have been found buried in the frozen tundras of 

 Siberia and Alaska, and their outward appearance thus preserved to our 

 day. But even the mammoths, tens of thousands of years old though 

 they be, are mere creatin-es of yesterday, modern upstarts, compared 

 with the hoary antiquity of this dinosaur mimimy. 



It will be a matter of several months' work to complete the preparation 

 of this specimen for public exhibition, but, when finished, it will do more 

 than any mere skeleton or pictured restoration to impress upon us the 

 reality of the ancient world of the Dinosaurs. 



Two other specimens purchased from Mr. Sternberg are marine 

 reptiles from the Kansas chalk beds, a little older than the formation in 

 which the Trachodon was found. One is a skeleton of the marine 

 turtle Toxochclys, the other a fine skull of the Mosasaurian or swimming 

 lizard Clidastes. There are also two specimens of comparatively recent 

 geological age, one a fine skull of the extinct long-horned liison, six feet 

 from tip to tip of the horns, and a lower jaw of the Imperial Mammoth, — 

 both from the Pleistocene of Kansas. Two huge tortoises from the 

 Miocene beds of Kansas and the skull of a small rodent related to the 

 beaver, but of burrowing habit, are likew^ise included in the collection. 



Mr. Sternberg is a genuine enthusiast in searching for these memorials 

 of the former history of the world we live in, and it is a satisfaction no less 

 to himself than to the American Museum to see these fine specimens 

 placed where they will be seen and appreciated by thousands of visitors 

 each year. He has already contributed to oiu- collection some notable 

 specimens and many fossils of much scientific interest. M. 



