

ZfcTO. 13. 

 ON SOME OF PROFESSOR MARSH'S CRITICISMS. 

 By E. D. Cope. 



I. 



I have already (hi " The Short-footed Ungulata of the Eocene of Wyo- 

 ming ; " Naturalists' Agency, Salem, Mass.) shown, by figures and des- 

 criptions, the absence of foundation for Professor Marsh's recent animad- 

 versions, and though these latter present internal evidence of idiosyncracy 

 which almost disarms reply, yet as some of the readers of this journal 

 may not see the above essay, I make a few specific contradictions of some 

 of his statements which may be regarded as serious. 



In an article "On the Gigantic Fossil Mammals of the Order Dinoce- 

 rata, ' ' he writes as follows : 



"(1) What Prof. Cope has called incisors are canines, etc." I had 

 determined and stated them to be canines, in the American Naturalist, 

 previous to the appearance of this criticism. 



"(2) The stout horus he described are not on the frontals but on the 

 maxillaries. " I was the first to determine these bones to be nasals, and 

 find that in Eobasileus p?*essicornis tney compose the inner face of the 

 horns to the apex, while the maxillaries form the outer face.* It was on 

 this sj>ecies that my original determination was based. In the original 

 specimen the middle portion of both nasals is wanting. 



"(3) The orbit is not below these horns but quite behind them, and 

 has over it a prominent ridge on the frontal." In Loxolophodon comutus 

 the naso-maxillary horn is largely above the orbit, and there is no super- 

 ciliary ridge of the frontal. 



" (4) The occiput is not vertical, but extends obliquely backwards, the 

 occipital crest projecting behind the condyles." Prof. Marsh has been 

 perhaps led into this error by the imperfection of the occipital condyles 

 in his specimen. He does not appear to know that in life the head was 

 directed obliquely downwards, so that the occipital crest was vertical as 

 I described it in Loxoloplwclon and in Uintatherium robustum. 



" (5) The temporal fossa is not small posteriorly but unusually large ;" 

 and " (7) the spine of the tibia is not obtuse but wanting," are frivolous ; 

 vide my descriptions, I. c. 



" (6) The great trochanter of the femur is recurved, though Prof. Cope 

 says not. " It is flat, as in the elephants. 



"(8) One of the species named by Prof. Cope, Eobasileus furcatus, is 

 based on what he regards as portions of the nasal bones. The descrip- 

 tion, however, indicates that these specimens are merely the posterior 

 horn-cores of well-known species." In the location of these cores Prof. 

 Marsh may be correct, but demonstration is yet wanting. How "well- 

 known" these species are to Prof. Marsh, will be evident shortly ; and 

 how they could be well-known to anybody else, may be determined by 



*(See my paper, p 18). Professor Marsh has since contradicted the former statement flatly. 



