AGATHAUMAS SYLVESTRIS. 105 



Osborn, H. F., Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. 5, 1893, p. 326; Contr. Canadian Pal., vol. 3 (quarto), pt. 2, 1902, pp. 9, 20. 



Woodward, A. S., Outlines Vert. Pal., p. 213. 



Zittel, K. A. von, Text-book Pal., trans by C. R. Eastman, vol. 2, p. 244. 



This, the earliest known genus of the Ceratopsidse, represents one of the larger of these 

 horned dinosaurs. Unfortunately nothing is known of the skull in this genus. This is 

 especially unfortunate in the present instance, since in this group of dinosaurs the skull affords 

 by far the best generic and specific characters, and most of the genera and species are based 

 very largely and often entirely upon cranial characters. From the material at hand it would 

 be hard to distinguish the present genus from an} T one of the several genera that have been 

 proposed for the reception of these later Laramie Ceratopsidse. 



Agathaumas sylvestris Cope. 1872. 



Type (No. 4000, Am. Mus. Nat. Hist.) consists of about sixteen vertebra, including the sacrum, the' right ilium, frag- 

 ments of ribs, etc. 



Originally described in Proc. Am. Philos. Soc, vol. 12, pp. 481-483. 

 Marsh, O. O, Am. Jour. Sci., 1873, pp. 230-231. 

 Baur, G., Science, vol. 17, 1891, p. 217. 

 Cope, E. D., Am. Naturalist, 1872, p. 670; Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., vol. 24, 1872, p. 279; Ann. Rept, U. S. Geol. and 



Geog. Surv. Terr, for 1873, pp. 435, 438, 442, 444-446, 447; Bull. U. S. Geol. andGeog. Surv. Terr., vol. 1, No. 2, 1st ser., 



pp. 9, 11, 16-18, 20; Rept. U. S. Geol. and Geog. Surv. Terr., vol. 2, 1875, pp. 31, 34, 40, 54-56, 57, 248; Bull. U. S. 



Geol. and Geog. Surv., vol. 3,1877, p. 594; Am. Naturalist, vol. 12, pp. 245-246; Am. Naturalist, vol. 23, 1889, pp. 715-717; 



Syl. Lectures on Pal., Univ. Pa., 1891, p. 43; Am. Naturalist, vol. 26, 1892, p. 758. 

 Dana, J. D., Manual of Geology, 1895, p. 847. 

 Hatcher, J. B., Am. Naturalist, vol. 30, 1896, p. 113. 

 Nopcsa, F. Baron, Foldtani Kozlony, Budapest, 1901, vol. 31, p. 270. 

 Osborn, H. F., Contr. Canadian Pal., vol. 3 (quarto), pt. 2, 1902, p. 14. 



The first of these larger and more specialized members of the Ceratopsia to be discovered 

 and described was the Agathaumas sylvestris" of Cope. Indeed this was the first of all the 

 genera and species of this group of dinosaurs to be described and named. 



LOCALITY. 



The type (No. 4000, Am. Mus. Nat. Hist.) of the present genus and species was discovered 

 in 1872 by F. B. Meek, of Dr. F. V. Hayden's Geological and Geographical Survey of the 

 Territories. It was found in southern Wyoming, not far from Black Buttes station on the 

 Union Pacific Railroad, 52 miles east of Green River. According to Professor Cope, who 

 unearthed the remains, they were taken from a bed of sandstone occupying a stratigraphic 

 position just above the thinner or lower stratum of the Bitter Creek series of coals and over- 

 lain by two other coal seams. This bed of sandstone in which the bones were found "crops 

 out high on the bluffs" lying east of Black Buttes station. Dr. T. W. Stanton, who is well 

 acquainted with the country about Black Buttes, writes me as follows: 



I can not say that I have ever identified the exact spot from which the bones were taken, but the horizon and the general 

 location within 200 or 300 yards is easily found. Meek, who discovered the bones, and Cope, who collected and described 

 them in 1872, were not very definite in their statements as to the locality, though they gave its exact position in the section. 

 The only natural inference from Cope's description is that the place is east of the railroad, which for a short distance here has 

 a course almost south. In 1873 Lesquereux visited the locality and gave its position as follows: & "The Saurian bed, as it is 

 now called, is at the top of the ridge facing the depot, at a short distance, half a mile, east from it. The debris taken out in 

 digging the bones of the animal is still mixed with a quantity of fragments of those bones, and some of the specimens are 

 remarkably interesting, bearing, as they do, fragments of bones on one side and fossil leaves on the other." White evidently 

 overlooked this definite statement when he published his belief that the type locality of Agathaumas sylvestris is probably 

 about a mile south of Black Buttes station and about 100 feet above the principal horizon for invertebrate fossils, c 

 The Black Buttes section was examined by Messrs. Stanton and Knowlton in 1896, who described d it as follows: 

 "The most prominent feature of the section at Black Buttes is the massive bed of sandstone somewhat over 100 feet 

 thick at the base of the exposure, forming steep hills and cliffs northeast of the railroad opposite the station and passing 



a The original spelling was Agathaumas sylvestris, later variations by Cope were Agathaumus for the genus and sylvestre and silvestre for 

 the species. 



b Ann. Rept. U. S. Geol. and Geog. Surv. Terr, for 1873, p. 373. 

 cAnn. Rept. U. S. Geol. and Geog. Surv. Terr, for 1877, p. 223. 

 4 Bull. Geol. Soc. America, vol. 8. p. 143. 



