238 Obituory — Professor 0. C. Marsh. 



at Yale University, the Professorship being instituted for hira, and 

 there he remained until the close of his career. Within two years 

 after his appointment Marsh ceased to write miscellaneous papers, 

 and devoted all his time, energies, and resources to the pursuit of 

 Vertebrate Palceontology. 



Aided by the liberality of his uncle, Mr. George Peabody, the 

 founder of the Peabody Museum of the Yale University, Marsh 

 commenced a series of expeditions for palseontological purposes to 

 the Eocky Mountain region and the Far West. One of the eai'liest 

 of these was in 1870, and lasted more than five months. It 

 extended into Kansas, Nebraska, and Utah. The fossils obtained 

 were chiefly from the "Loup River" Pliocene and the " Mauvaises 

 Terres" or Miocene, both deposits having been accumulated beneath 

 the waters of enormous fresh-water lakes, whose banks were 

 tenanted by many of the peculiar Pachyderms of the Paris Basin. 

 Many species of fossil horses (one of them allied to Hipparion), of 

 Rhinoceroses, of Titanotherium, an ElotJieriiim, camels, and carnivores 

 were secured. These old lake-deposits of Miocene age abound in 

 remains of crocodiles, serpents, turtles, and fishes. Numerous 

 Mosasaurian remains also were obtained in Kansas. Another 

 expedition followed in 1874 to the south of the Uintah Mountains, 

 and was equally successful. 



From the date of Professor Marsh's establishment at Yale 

 University, a long succession of scientific papers appeared, mostly 

 in Silliraan's American Journal and in the Geological Magazine. 



Of his earlier papers may be mentioned the following : — On the 

 discovery of a diminutive species of fossil horse {Equus pnrvulus) ; 

 Reptilian remains from Brazil; Mosasauroid reptiles from New Jersey ; 

 a gigantic fossil serpent (Dinophis grandis) from New Jersey : fossil 

 birds from the Cretaceous and Tertiary ; a fossil Gavial from New 

 Jersey ; a gigantic species of Pterodactyle ; new Tertiary mammals 

 and birds; on Eesperornis regalis, a toothed bird; notes on Tinoceras; 

 fossil quadrumana and carnivora from Wyoming; a new species of 

 Ichihjornis ; fossil mammals of the order Dinocerata ; on the genus 

 3hioceras, etc. ; on the structure of the BrontotheriidEe ; new equine 

 mammals; on the small size of the brain in Tertiary mammals ; on 

 the Tillodontia; on the genus Goryphodon ; on the Pterosauria ; on 

 the Stegosauria, a new order of extinct Reptilia ; on the Sauranodonta 

 and principal characters of American Jurassic Dinosaurs ; on Dino- 

 saurian reptiles from the Jurassic formation ; new Jurassic mammals. 



Professor Marsh's first great work appeared in 1880 on the 

 Odontornithes, a monograph on the extinct toothed birds of North 

 America (4to, pp. xv -\- 201, with 34 plates and 40 woodcuts). 

 Certainly, as a scientific publication, it surpasses any which have 

 already appeared devoted to palseontology. 



In the same geological horizon with the Odontornitlies, Professor 

 Marsh discovered and described the first Fterodactyles, or flying- 

 lizards of America. These ai-e of enormous size, having a spread of 

 wings of nearly 25 feet, and were specially remarkable for having 

 no teeth, hence resembling our modern birds. 



