APRIL 5, 1901.] 
of Rafinesque probated in November of that 
year. 
R. ELLSwoRTH CALL. 
BROOKLYN, N. Y., March 14, 1901. 
LUNAR HALO. 
To THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: On February 
25, 1901, there was visible in this locality a 
lunar halo of rather peculiar form. After vain 
attempts to find an explanation of it the writer 
asks the privilege of an appeal to the readers 
of SctencE. This phenomenon consisted of an 
elliptical ring around the moon with axes ap- 
parently about six degrees and nine degrees re- 
spectively. The principal axis of the ellipse 
was vertical while the terminator of light on 
the moon’s surface made an angle of about 45 
degrees with the horizon. The moon was about 
half way down in the southwest and half full. 
A southeast breeze was blowing and very thin 
fleecy clouds could be seen passing over the 
face of the moon. The ring persisted for fif- 
teen minutes or more. 
The peculiar orientation of the terminator 
and major axis is the difficult part to explain. 
One might expect an elliptical though perhaps 
ill-defined ring from an elongated source of 
light, but why should the major axis be in- 
clined to the terminator? 
C. M. BROOMALL. 
MeptiA, PA., March 23, 1901. 
SHORTER ARTICLES. 
THE LARGEST KNOWN DINOSAUR. 
THE Field Columbian Museum paleontolog- 
ical expedition of the past summer was fortu- 
~ nate in securing a number of Dinosaur bones 
belonging to an animal unique both in size and 
in proportions. These bones consist of a femur, 
a humerus, a coracoid, the sacrum, an ilium, a 
series of seven presacral vertebre, two caudal 
vertebree, and a number of ribs. Part of this 
collection has been placed on exhibition and 
the remainder will follow from time to time as 
the work of preparation proceeds. 
The most striking characteristic of this ani- 
mal, so far developed, is the relative length of 
the front and hind legs. While the humerus of 
Brontosaurus excelsus Marsh is a little more 
SCIENCE. 
* cavities in the centra. 
549 
than two-thirds as long as the femur, the hu- 
merus of the individual in question is decidedly 
the longer bone of the two. 
The femur is a stout bone with expanded 
condyles and a head not constricted from the 
shaft. The specimen is somewhat crushed an- 
tero-posteriorly, but otherwise in a fine state of 
preservation. Its greatest length parallel to 
the axis of the shaft is 80 inches (2,003 m.), © 
which is six inches longer than the femur of 
Marsh’s Atlantosaurus. The humerus is broad 
at the proximal end, but unusually slender in 
the shaft. It has suffered somewhat from 
weathering, so that the entire surface of the 
distal end has flaked away, leaving a firm chal- 
cedony core. In this condition its length is 
equal to that of the femur; with the articular 
end complete it would probably exceed it by 
two or more inches. Its present length is 
greater by 23 inches than the longest humerus 
hitherto known to science. 
The coracoid is broad and straight at the 
scapular articulation, but less massive than that 
of Brontosaurus. The sacrum is made up of 
four coossified vertebra, having small lateral 
A complete rib, pre- 
sumably from about the sixth presacral verte- 
bree, measures more than nine feet in length. 
Some of the thoracic ribs have a secondary 
tubercle, and also a foramen leading to a cavity 
in the shaft. However, these may not prove 
to be constant characteristics. 
The similarity of the femur to that of: Atlan- 
tosaurus, together with the presence of but four 
vertebre in the sacrum, suggests that this ani- 
mal may belong to that group. The writer does 
not feel justified in creating a new genus until 
the material shall have been sufficiently worked 
out to ‘make an accurate determination pos- 
sible. However, the evidence at hand is suf- 
ficent to show that we have here to do with an 
animal which differs radically from any well- 
known Dinosaur. The extraordinary length of 
the humerus, together with the size of the cora- 
coid, suggests an animal whose shoulders would 
rise high above the pelvic region, giving the 
body something of a giraffe-like proportion. 
The relatively smaller size of the anterior cau- 
dal vertebre indicates a lesser development of 
the tail than is common among the sauropod 
