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THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM MAGAZINE. 



Model of the amphibious Dinosaur, Camarasaurus. It was fifty-two feet long and 

 about twenty feet in height. Constructed by Erwin S. Christman, 

 American Museum of Natural History. 



[Photo.— G. C. Clufton. 



Erwin S. Christman, whose early death 

 was a signal loss both to art and science, 

 are the outcome of fifteen years' research 

 by President H. F. Osborn, Dr. W. K. 

 Gregory, Dr. C. C. Mook, Erwin S. 

 Christman of the American Museum of 

 Natural History, and other experts. 

 The pose of the skeleton was worked 

 out in a miniature model with flexible 

 joints, and the muscular restoration 

 is based on a careful comparison 

 with living reptiles. This reptile was 

 fifty two feet in length and about 

 twenty feet in height. 



Its skeleton offers a striking example 

 of adaptation to special needs. A 

 body of such huge dimensions required 

 an adequate scaffolding for its support 

 and for attachment of the muscles 

 which served for locomotion ; the bony 

 framework of Camarasaurus shows us 

 how admirably the problem was solved. 

 Its long neck demanded strong and 

 firmly anchored muscles, and these 

 required large surfaces of bone for their 

 attachment, therefore we are not sur- 

 prised to find that the neck vertebrae 

 of the animal were of complicated de- 

 sign, hollowed out by lateral cavities 



-V- 



'--^il Litt-V»-Uit 



Skeleton of the amphibious Dinosaur, Camarasaurus, with human siceleton 

 for comparison. From drawing by Erwin S. Christman. 



{Courtesy nf the American Museum of Satural History. 



