August 4, 1904J 



NA TURE 



321 



Museum with the older ancestral skeletons and feet 

 obtained from the Cope collection and other sources, 

 and the whole series is described in a popular manner 

 by Dr. \V. D. Matthew in an admirable small hand- 

 book which can be purchased by the visitor. The 

 interest of the general public in the " dry bones " is 

 also roused by some attempted " restorations " of the 

 various animals as they appeared when alive, Prof. 

 Osborn having secured the services of a skilful artist, 

 .Mr. Charles R. Knight. As an example of this 

 popularisation, we reproduce the life-like drawing of 

 the ancestral four-toed horse, Protorohippus (Fig. i). 



Prof. Cope's well known researches on the ancestry 

 of the camels and llamas, which were originally North 

 .\merican animals, have been extended by Dr. Wort- 

 man, and he devotes one of the most important papers 

 in the volume now before us to this subject. He and 

 Dr. Matthew also treat of the ancestry of the dogs, 

 while Prof. Osborn himself not only deals with the 

 evolution of the rhinoceroses, but likewise with that 

 of the Amblypoda — the small-brained herbivores of 

 I lie Eocene period which eventually became bulky 

 and developed fantastic horns when on the verge of 

 extinction. It is curious that the extinct rhinocero.ses 

 of North .America never de\-eloped a horn, except, 

 perhaps, an incipient trace in one 

 species. It is also remarkable thai 

 in some of the earliest normal and 

 hornless Amblypoda (Coryphodon) 

 Prof. Osborn is able to discover 

 slight indications of a bonv 

 thickening where the horn-cores 

 were destined to grow in the later 

 members of the race. 



Numerous primitive small- 

 brained carnivores (Creodonta) are 

 described and discussed bv Drs. 

 Wortmon and Matthew, and a new 

 classification by the latter author 

 advances far beyond any scheme 

 previously published. These 

 animals are very important, be- 

 cause they are not only to be 

 regarded as the ancestors of the 

 higher Carnivora. but are also 

 closely related to the marsupials of 

 the .Australian region and South 

 .America. The North .American 



specimens appear to be abundant, and many are 

 especially well preserved. Collections like those made 

 bv the .American Museum are thus of more scientific 

 value than the fragmentary remains with which 

 palaeontologists have hitherto been obliged to remain 

 content in the Old World. 



.Among the remains of true Carnivora discovered by 

 the American Museum expeditions, one of the most 

 interesting is a gigantic skull, i8 inches in length, 

 found with a few other bones of the skeleton in the 

 L'pper Miocene of Texas. This specimen evidently 

 belongs to a massive animal which is neither a bear 

 nor a dog, but something intermediate between the 

 two. Dr. Matthew compares it with Dinocyon from 

 the Upper Miocene of France, and describes various 

 fragments of allied genera. It now appears that the 

 late Prof. Cope was referring to a jaw of one of these 

 animals when he made the announcement some years 

 ago of the discovery of a fossil hyjena in North 

 .America. There is still no evidence of hyaenas in the 

 New World. 



The ancient .\nierican lemurs form the subject of 

 an elaborate technical paper by Prof. Osborn. The 

 possible earliest ancestors of the rodents, from the 

 basal Eocene, are also discussed by him. .A horned 



NO. I 8 14, VOL. 70] 



rodent — the first known horned member of its order — 

 is described by Dr. Matthew from the L'pper Miocene 

 of Colorado. ' This animal (Ceratogatiliis rhinocerus) 

 seems to have been related to the beaver, and bears a 

 pair of bony horn-cores on the nose. There is also 

 a paper by Dr. Matthew on the first remains of a true 

 hedgehog discovered in North America. 



Tiie perfection of the modern methods of collecting 

 and preparing fossils is well seen in the wonderful 

 carapace of an extinct armadillo, Glyptotherium 

 texaniim, from the Lower Pleistocene of Texas. It 

 has been known for many years that the typical South 

 .American Glyptodonts ranged northwards over the 

 Isthmus of Panama into the southern United States 

 before their final extinction, but no example so nearly 

 complete as that now mounted in the American 

 Museum (Fig. 3) had previously been obtained. 



Besides Mammalia, the American Museum has 

 collected many Reptilia, notably Dinosauria from the 

 Jurassic of VVyoming. Since 1S9S a party has been 

 sent each year to tlie so-called Bone Cabin Quarry, 

 which has proved especially rich in megalosaurian and 

 dinosaurian remains. During the first season alone, 

 no less than six nearly complete limbs and three fore- 

 feet were disentombed from this spot. Since then a 



nearly complete skull of the megalosaurian Creo- 

 saurus, and the greater part of a skeleton of a new 

 small and slender Dinosaur {Ornitholestes hermaiini) 

 have been obtained, besides less important fossils. 

 .All these are described by Prof. Osborn, and add valu- 

 able facts to our knowledge of the animals to which 

 they belong. .A well preserved skull of the horned 

 Cretaceous Dinosaur Triceratops serratus is also de- 

 scribed in much greater detail than heretofore by Prof. 

 R. S. Lull. 



It only remains to add that the lower vertebrates are 

 by no means neglected by the American Museum. In 

 the present volume there are two valuable papers on 

 Cretaceous fishes by Dr. O. P. Hay, the one dealing 

 with .American specimens in the Cope collection, the 

 other with well preserved fishes from the fissile chalk 

 of the Lebanon, Syria. The latter is particularly 

 interesting as making known much new evidence of 

 the forerunners of the saw-fishes and eels, which were 

 almost completely developed in the Cretaceous period. 



In conclusion, it must be remembered that the 

 .American Museum of Natural History is only in part 

 a public institution. It receives only limited support 

 from the municipality of New York and the State 

 Board of Education. The department of vertebrate 



