414 AV. D. MATTHEAV PROGRESS IX VERTEBRATE PALEOXTOLOGY 



has hitherto been a term incognita to the vertebrate paleontologist, and 

 the finding of rich and extensive fossil fields in the Gobi Desert with 

 Cretaceous, Eocene, Oligocene, and Pliocene formations, each yielding 

 considerable faunas and finely preserved specimens, in the first season's 

 exploration, promises to open up a completely new field in vertebrate 

 paleontology.^^ Other fossiliferous horizons will probably 'be discovered 

 by further explorations, and the history of the land vertebrates of the 

 great central Asiatic continent in the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras will be 

 placed on record in considerable detail. 



In the cellars and storage racks of many museums, both in this country 

 and abroad, are important collections of fossil vertebrates acquired many 

 years ago, but never prepared or described. The labor and expense of 

 prejoaring, studying, and describing this material to make it of use to 

 science is as valuable a contribution as though it were fresh from the 

 field. A considerable part of the work in the Xational Museum and some 

 in the American Museum has dealt with specimens collected long ago for 

 Marsh and Cope. Eecently the Yale Museum has made a vigorous and 

 highly successful campaign to j^repare and describe the great fossil col- 

 lections left to that institution by Professor Marsh. A series of articles 

 by Lull, Troxell, and Thorpe in the American Journal of Science testifies 

 to the importance of these additions to our knowledge. 



Two very valuable and authoritative memoirs by Doctor Teilhard de 

 Chardin should be noted in this connection. In one the classic Cernay- 

 sian fauna at the base of the French Eocene is admirably described and 

 illustrated from the collections in the Paris Museum.'*- The relations of 

 this fauna and correlation with the Paleocene faunas of this country are 

 now at last based on adequate data. Of scarcely less importance is Pere 

 Teilhard's memoir on the carnivora of the Phosphorite fauna, also based 

 on the unrivaled collections in the museum at Paris. "^^ 



A third important memoir from the Paris Musetun, simiptuously illus- 

 trated and admirably presented by the Director, Marcellin Boule,^* de- 

 scribes the fine collections from the Pleistocene of the Tarija Yalle}', in 

 Bolivia, in the Paris Museum. 



•*MV. Granger and C. P. Berkey : (1022.) Amer. Mus. Xovitates. no. 42; 1923, Ibid., 

 no. 77. 



*- P. de Chardin Teilhard: (1021.) Mammiferes de I'Eocene inferiur francais. An- 

 nates de Paleont., x, pp. 171-17G; xi. pp. 1-108, pis. i-viii. 



*3 Teilhard : (1915.) Les Carnassiers des phosphorites de Quercy. Annales de Pale- 

 ont., ix, pp. 100-195, pis. xii-xx ; 1020, Sur quelques primates des phosphorites de Quercy. 

 Idem, X, pp. 2-20. 



**^l. Boule and A. Thevenin : (1020.) Mammiferes Fossiles de Tarija. Mission Scien- 

 tifique Crequi-Montfort. Soudier. Paris. 



