258 Life of a Fossil Hunter 



After Dr. Broili left to return to Munich, I con- 

 tinued my work, camping on east Coffee Creek. 

 Here again our search was rewarded. I found an- 

 other bone bed of very small lizards, some of them, 

 I think, not over six inches long. The skulls ranged 

 in size from less than half an inch to an inch in 

 length. Cope has given them the name Lysorophus 

 tricarinatus. Drs. Broili and Case in their valuable 

 papers have shown that this Lysorophus is one of the 

 most interesting genera of all this wonderful fauna, 

 since in the structure of the skull it is a veritable 

 " missing link " between the batrachia and reptilia. 



The deposit in which I found the Lysorophus 

 was large, containing thousands of bones and many 

 fine skulls. I am convinced that these creatures 

 must have hibernated, as many of them were coiled 

 in a circle in an envelope of hardened mud, and 

 appear to have lain down never to wake again, each 

 tiny reptile and its nest having been preserved 

 through all the ages since. The flesh, of course, 

 decayed soon after death, but by the process of 

 petrification the bones have been replaced by stone. 



Now I have always wanted to explain to a popular 

 audience what this process of petrification really is. 

 The word petrification should be dropped from our 

 vocabulary, because it signifies an impossibility. I 

 remember, as a boy, translating from the Latin a 

 sentence like this" His bones became stone/' that 



