APPEARANCE OF THE CERATOPSIA. 



189 



THE LARAMIE TYPES. 



Marsh has given us the first skeletal restoration of Trieeratops in the Sixteenth Annual 

 Report of the United States Geological Survey (PI. LXXI), reproduced here as fig. 125. 



This restoration is A r ery accurate except for the number of presacral vertebrae, which has 

 been overestimated. As Hatcher has shown, in Trieeratops brevicornus at least (p. 46, fig. 48), 

 the number of presacrals is not more than twenty-two, while in Marsh's figure there are twenty- 

 one without the cervicals, which probably number at least eight more. Another feature about 

 which doubt may be expressed is the correctness of the restoration of the feet, for while odd 

 foot bones have been brought to light, no com- 

 plete manus or pes of this interesting animal has 

 yet been found. 



Knight has essaj^ed at least three restora- 

 tions of Trieeratops, the first two, a statuette and 

 a drawing, being based largely, if not wholly, 

 upon that of Marsh. The statuette was made 

 for the American Museum, and a view of it is 

 shown as fig. 26 in F. A. Lucas's Animals of the 

 Past (McClure, Philips & Co., New York, 1901), 

 while the drawing was also published by 

 Lucas." 



The restoration of Trieeratops which forms 

 the frontispiece of the present volume was made 

 under Hatcher's personal supervision, and is 

 one of the most successful of Knight's artistic 

 reconstructions. The general proportions are 

 markedly different from those of the preceding 

 conceptions of the animal, notably in the shorten- 

 ing of the back and in placing the highest" point 

 in the arch of the vertebral column over the 

 sacrum rather than farther forward. The propor- 

 tion of head to trunk is also greater, the skull be- 

 ing almost one-third of the entire length of the 

 animal, including the tail. The length of the tail 

 is conjectural, as a complete caudal series is 

 unknown and it is possible that it may have been 

 reduced somewhat, as it no longer subserved the 

 function of a counterpoise, as in bipedal dinosaurs. 



The skeleton of Trieeratops prorsus which 

 has recently been mounted at the National 

 Museum is that upon which Marsh based his 

 restoration, and a comparison of the results is of 

 great interest. The skeleton was mounted by 

 Mr. C. W. Gilmore, of the Museum staff, and his description of the specimen is here given: 6 



The skeleton of Trieeratops prorsus, recently placed on exhibition in the court devoted to vertebrate paleontology, is the 

 first one of this extinct genus to be mounted. As all of, the specimens [of Trieeratops] referred to above were more or less 

 fragmentary, the most complete one (No. 4842c) [Sk. C, 2082 and 2084 d] was used as a basis for the present restoration. The 

 missing parts [including the skull (No. 2100)] were substituted from other individuals of about the same size and belonging to 

 the same species. Where suitable bones were not available, as was the cas? in a few instances, these parts were restored in 

 plaster, colored to somewhat resemble the bones, but having the shade differ sufficiently to be easily recognized. Thus we 

 have been able to present a fairly accurate representation of the skeletal structure of this peculiar reptile. Every bone used in 



• Ann. Eept. Smithsoni n Institution for 1901, p. 644, PI. I. 



» Gilmore, C W., A mounted skeleton of Trieeratops: Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 29, 1905, pp. 433-435. Some words in brackets have been 

 since added by Mr. Gilmore. 



c Catalogue number of the TJ. S. National Museum. 

 d Marsh's original numbers. 



Fig. 124.— Restoration of Trieeratops. Rear view of the 

 mounted skeleton in the U. S. National Museum. (See 

 also PI. XLIX.) 



