REPORT OF THE STATE PALEONTOLOGIST I9O3 II 



Bulletin 65. Type Specimens of Paleozoic Fossils in the New 

 York State Museum. This catalogue, which has been an arduous 

 compilation and long in press, is a record of the possessions of the 

 museum in this important class of objects. Type specimens of natural 

 objects, that is the actual material on which published descriptive 

 accounts and discussions have been based, constitute the unique treas- 

 ures of a museum. Such objects once lost or destroyed, replacement 

 is impossible. Howsoever imperfect or fragmentary the type or 

 original specimen may be, of however superior quality some other 

 example of the same creature, the second can not serve to scientific 

 students the function of the first. The type specimen is the basis of 

 comparison and reference for all time. 



The publication of the Palaeontology of New York and the exten- 

 sive list of papers accessory and supplementary thereto have given 

 birth to a very large number of type specimens from the paleozoic 

 strata of America. Some part of these, specially that utilized in the 

 early volumes of the paleontologic reports, was the personal property 

 of the author of those reports and passed from his hands to the 

 possession of the American Museum of Natural History in the city 

 of New York. Till the preparation of this catalogue was begun, no 

 serious effort to bring together the type specimens in the State Mu- 

 seum of these and other descriptions into one place or record was 

 ever carried to completion. Some years ago the writer undertook 

 the work of publishing lists, believed to be complete at the time, of 

 certain of the organic groups, namely the Crustacea, Vermes and 

 Cephalopoda;^ but a revision of these lists has shown considerable 

 omissions, due somewhat to normal growth as investigations have 

 progressed but more to the fact that these types have been scattered 

 all through the collections of the museum both in the State Hall and 

 in Geological Hall. It has been an arduous task to search out and 

 bring together these specimens, which during the past half century 

 have become so widely and carelessly diffused, but their number is 

 noteworthy, and the importance of this record justifies the labor put 

 on it. 



IN. Y. State Geol. nth An. Rep't. 1892. p. 31-53; 12th An. Rep't. 1893. 

 p. 57-104. 



