Obituary— Professor 0. C. March. 239 



The bird-like Fossil Footprints of the Triassic sandstones from 

 the Connecticut Valley always interested Marsh, and he keenly and 

 critically studied them; as, although no bones bad been found near 

 them, they had been regarded as undoubted footprints of birds, 

 because it was supposed that birds alone could make such series of 

 bipedal, three-toed tracks, and leave no impression of a tail. Marsh 

 ■was able in later years to show that these bird-like tracks were 

 most probably made by a small bipedal reptile named Anckisanrus, 

 an early Triassic dinosaur. 



In 1884 appeared the second of Marsh's great works, a Monograph 

 on the extinct Diuocerata, a gigantic order of Ungulate mammals 

 (Washington, 4:to, pp. xviii and 237, with 56 plates and 200 

 woodcuts). These huge beasts, which nearly equalled the elephant 

 in size, roamed in great numbers about the borders of the ancient 

 Eocene lake-basin in Wyoming, where so many of them were after- 

 wards entombed. The drainage of this lake by the Green River, its 

 elevation from six to eight thousand feet, and subsequent erosion 

 by the Colorado, has left exposed by slow denudation the great 

 " mauvaises terres," or " bad lands," carved into peaks, cliffs, and 

 columns of the most fantastic and varied shapes and colours, and 

 has exposed the remains of the many extinct animals and the bones 

 of the great Dinocerata for the attention of the explorer. More 

 than 200 individuals of the Dinocerata have been brought together 

 in "Yale College Museum alone. 



A papie7--mache model, taken from the actual bones of the comjDlete 

 skeleton of Tinoceras ingens, has been presented by Professor Marsh 

 to the Geological Department of the British Museum (Natural 

 History), London, and serves as an interesting memorial of his work. 



Professor Marsh's third Monograph is on the Dinosaurs of North 

 America, and appeared in 1896 (imperial 8vo, pp. 110, with 84 

 plates). No fewer than fourteen papers, richly illustrated, had already 

 appeared on this subject in the Geological Magazine from 1882 to 

 1896, so that this Monograph could not be expected to add much to 

 the knowledge already derived from the author's numerous separate 

 memoirs. But all Marsh's work on the Dinosauria is here brought 

 into one focus. Many fine plates were held back by him, as well as 

 many details, for a future edition de luxe, which, alas ! he never lived 

 to produce, but which will doubtless be published at an early date 

 by the University of Yale, provision having been made for that 

 purpose by Professor Marsh in his will. 



An excellent summary of Marsh's observations on Dinosaurs will 

 be found in the Geological Magazine, 1896 (pp. 388-400), with 

 twelve admirable restorations of the leading forms. (See also Geol 

 Mag., 1897, pp. 38-44.) 



Marsh's toothed birds and toothless Pterodactyles may seem to be 

 two of the most remarkable of his numerous discoveries ; but his 

 Monograph on the Dinocerata is in itself a grand and classical 

 piece of work, suflScient alone to merit the highest distinction. 



Yet if we turn to his long researches upon the Dinosauria, one 

 would feel certainly disposed to give to these the first place of 



