Othniel Charles Marsh. 419 



issued in 1886 by the United States Geological Survey. His 

 work in other groups of mammals is scattered through a large 

 number of separate papers, and contributions were made to 

 every known order. The Tillodontia comprise one of the 

 most remarkable of the types. Among others are the first 

 remains of fossil Primates, Cheiroptera, and Marsupialia, 

 known from North America. The Brontotheridse and 

 Coryphodontia received considerable attention. A monograph 

 had been begun on the former, and restorations of a typical 

 genus of each were published. 



One general conclusion of much significance was the out- 

 come of his researches on the Mammals. It was that the 

 Tertiary genera possessed very small brains. As a single 

 example, Dinoceras may be taken. This animal was but 

 little inferior to the elephant in bulk, but its brain capacity 

 was not more than one-eighth that of existing rhinoceroses. 



The first Mesozoic Mammal in xlmerica was described by 

 Emmons, in 1857, from the Triassic of North Carolina. 

 Marsh, by his extensive discoveries, was enabled to fill up the 

 gaps to the Tertiary with many genera and species from the 

 western Jurassic and Cretaceous. Probably nine-tenths of all 

 the Mesozoic Mammals known in the world were described by 

 him, and while these remains are of great interest, yet from 

 their fragmentary condition they are not of the highest scien- 

 tific value, because little is known beyond the jaws and a few 

 limb bones. 



In closing the outline of the discoveries made by this inves- 

 tigator, one cannot help being impressed with their signal 

 brilliancy, their great number, and especially by their unique 

 importance in the field of organic evolution. Were all other 

 evidence lost or wanting, the law of evolution would still have 

 a firm foundation in incontrovertible fact. The study of 

 variation and embryology in recent animals gives hints as to 

 the truth, but Paleontology alone can give the facts of descent. 



Charles E. Beecher. 



Yale University Museum, 

 New Haven, Conn., May 1st, 1899. 



Am. Jour. Sci.— Fourth Series, Yol. VII, No. 42.— June, 1899. 

 28 





