72 THE WHITE RIVER BADLANDS 



mounting of the= restored skeleton. Often considerable 

 masses of the enclosing earth or stone are quarried out and 

 shipped to the museum where time and proper instruments 

 will permit a more satisfactory extraction of the bones. ( See 

 Plate 10 and Figures 20 and 21). 



Reaching the preparatory laboratory the bandages are 

 carefully removed, all useless matrix cleared away and the 

 bone fragments assembled and cemented together. Injured 

 bones are then repaired and missing bones reproduced in 

 some suitable artificial preparation. The mounting is often 

 facilitated by study of the living relatives of the fossil form. 

 Where there is no living animal nearly related, recourse is 

 had to the studies of the rugosities of the bones where the 

 main muscles were attached in life, the facettes of the joints 

 and the general shape and character of the various bones. 



All this work, if properly done, requires much patience 

 and skill in manipulation as well as intelligent insight into 

 the general nature of the animal to be mounted. Many 

 weeks or months may be required in the laboratory work 

 alone, the expense of preparation usually far exceeding the 

 time and money spent in collecting the specimens in the 

 field. It may be readily inferred that the money value, to 

 say nothing of the educational importance of the completed 

 skeleton, particularly if it is the type specimen of a new 

 series, is often very great. (Plate 50). 



THE CLASSIFICATION AND NAMING OF EXTINCT 



ANIMALS 



The naming of animals, both living and extinct is 

 closely interwoven with their classification. Classification 

 is a process of comparison. Its object is to bring together 

 the like forms and to separate the unlike. This is best ac- 

 complished by comparing the various characters which are 

 the most constant. The natural result is the arrangement 

 of groups within groups in a continuous manner, the various 

 groups being given particular names, as, Kingdom, Sub- 

 kingdom, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species, et cetera. 

 The scientific name by which any animal is indicated is 

 formed by combining the generic and specific names much 

 as we combine our own family and Christian name except 

 that in the scientific nomenclature the specific term comes 

 last. To illustrate: The scientific name of the domestic 



