;94 



NA TURE 



[August 25, 1898 



a remarkably perfect skeleton found in New Jersey, and 

 mounted in the Princeton University Museum. Prof. 

 Scott, who described it in 1885, suggested that it possessed 

 characters intermediate between those of the deer and 

 moose. 



The other casts executed embrace the fore and hind 

 foot of Coryphodo7i radians ; the fore-foot of Palceosyops 

 pahidosiis ; the front of skull and lower jaw of Diplacodon 



emarginatus ; the lower jaw of Droinatherium sylves/re, 1 Pairiofelis. 



described by Emmons from the Trias of North Carolina ' j.^«* 



in 1854 ; the lower jaw of Microconodon tenuirostris ; j 

 and the brain-casts of Periptychus r/iabdodon, and of j 

 Paniolambda. 



Interesting as are these casts, we venture to think that ' 

 the most valuable work achieved by Mr. Osbortl is the 

 production of the fine series of photographs (bfomide | 



NO. 1504, VOL. 58] 



enlargements from the original negatives, size 18 inches 



X 22 inches). 



These excellent pictures, of which a number may be 

 seen mounted and exhibited in the galleries of the 



British Museum (Natural History), Cromwell Road, 



London, consist (i) of photographs of eleven mounted 

 skeletons of rare fossil mammals, as Metamynodon, 



Titanotheriuin, Hyrachyus, Patriofelis, Proiohippus, 

 Hoplophoneus^ Palceosyops^ 

 Phenacodus, Corypkodon, 

 Teleoceras, and Acera- 

 t/ieriutHj and (2) photo- 

 graphic restorations, of the 

 same size as the skeletons, 

 depicting the animals 

 clothed in their flesh, and 

 represented in different 

 attitudes according to 

 their known habits and 

 surroundings. 



They are taken from 

 a series of large water- 

 colour drawings executed 

 by Mr. Charles Knight, 

 the animal painter, with 

 the object of increasing 

 the popular interest in 

 these extinct animals, and 

 to give a fuller and truer 

 idea of their anatomy and 

 external form than is 

 afforded by the skeleton 

 alone. The position of all 

 the joints and angles of 

 the feet and limbs is true 

 to life, being governed by 

 the skeleton itself. The 

 lips, nostrils, and gape of 

 the mouth are determined 

 by comparison of the 

 length of the nasals, size 

 of the interior nares, 

 character and position of 

 the teeth, with similar 

 parts in the remotely- 

 related living forms. The 

 eyes are carefully located 

 and proportioned. Up to 

 this point the animal is 

 a fairly correct represent- 

 ation of the original. On 

 the other hand the shape 

 of the ears, the colour and 

 epidermic characters of 

 hair and hide are largely 

 imaginative, except in so 

 far as they are suggested 

 by relationship to modern 

 allies, as of Protorohippus 

 to the horse, or of Acera- 

 iheriwn, Metamynodon, 

 and Hyracodon to the 

 rhinoceros. (The price of 

 these photographs is fixed 

 at four dollars each). 

 These restorations include 

 Middle Eocene carnivore with 



broad -flat plantigrade feet with spreading toes, well 



adapted for swimming. He was not, perhaps, as expert 



a swimmer as the seals are now, but was sufficiently 



active in the water to capture turtles. 



This is, perhaps, the least original and successful of 



the restorations, being modelled somewhat too closely 



upon the existing otter. 



an aquatic 



