DECEMBER 22, 1899. ] 
The animal was first carefully modelled 
upon a one-ninth scale. 
Tylosaurus was avery powerful sea swim- 
mer, propelled chiefly by tbe lateral mo- 
tions of the body and tail. The caudal fin 
was a broad expansion along the dorsal line. 
The proportions can be precisely deter- 
mined. The fore and hind paddles were 
similar in action and played a subsidiary 
part in guiding the animal, but were effec- 
tive in the less rapid motions of the body. 
The indentation of the paddle border be- 
tween the 4th and 5th fingers is upon 
Williston’s authority. The nuchal fringe 
is also from this author’s recent descrip- 
tion of Platecarpus. The epidermal scaly 
covering is from Chancellor Snow’s account 
of the Tylosaurus proriger covering. The 
expression of the top of the skull resembles 
that of Varanus, but in other points there is 
a wide departure from the Varanoid type. 
The facts derived from this skeleton do 
not strengthen Baur’s extreme opinion as 
to the intimate connection of this type with 
the Varanide. Besides the secondary de- 
generate adaptation to marine life shown 
in the girdles and appendicular skeleton, 
there are certain fundamental differences 
in the basioccipitals and ribs, in fast in 
all parts of the skeleton. These differ- 
ences fully balance or overweigh the like- 
nesses, which have long been dwelt upon 
by Cuvier, Owen and Baur, between the 
Mosasaurs and Varanoids, and do not even 
justify the assertion that the Varanidee and 
Mosasaurs sprang from a common stem. 
The Mosasaurs are a very ancient marine 
offshoot of the Lacertilia, retaining certain 
primitive and generalized Lacertilian char- 
acters and presenting a few resemblances in 
the skull to the Varanoids; they are very 
highly specialized throughout for marine 
predaceous life, and constitute a distinct 
subdivision of the order Lacertilia. 
Henry F. Osporn. 
CoLUMBIA UNIVERSITY. 
SCLENCE, 
925 
THE INDIANA UNIVERSITY 
STATION. 
TuE advantages of biological stations for 
purposes of research and instruction have 
had many advocates in recent years. 
‘‘ There can be little doubt” says Parker, 
“that the study of zoology is most profit- 
ably as well as most pleasantly begun in the 
field and by the seashore, in the zoological 
garden and the aquarium.” ‘‘ The establish- 
ment of biological stations has done more 
to advance the study of zoology than any 
other one thing in this generation,” says 
Conklin. ‘Certain desiderata are evi- 
dent,’’ adds Kofoid, ‘‘ more biological sta- 
tions, so that the conclusions arrived at in 
one locality may be extended and corrected 
in a score of others ; and finally some biolog- 
ical Froebel, who shall demonstrate the 
disciplinary and cultural value of ecology 
as a field of biological instruction and es- 
tablish a standard for others to imitate. In 
their work we may look for the happy com- 
bination of the sympathetic observation of 
the old-time naturalist, the technical skill 
and searching logic of the morphologist, 
and the patient zeal and ingenuity of the 
experimental physiologist, a combination, 
let us hope, that shall unlock not a few of 
the secrets of the world of life.” 
“Tt is unquestionably true that the ten- 
dency within recent years” says Ward 
‘‘has been to make the university trained 
scientist a laboratory man, unacquainted 
with work out of doors and among living 
things. * * * Thus, both through the influ- 
ence of the investigators in the case of those 
stations which do not carry on directly any 
educational work, and through the teaching 
of those which do conduct summer instruc- 
tional courses, new life will be instilled into 
the teaching of natural history throughout 
our country.” 
The Biological Station of the Indiana 
University was planned with a well defined 
object in view, the study of the variation of 
BIOLOGICAL 
