196 Lull — Development of Vertebrate Paleontology. 



Cuvier was followed in Europe by a number of illus- 

 trious men, none of whom, however, with the exception of 

 Sir Eichard Owen, possessed his breadth of knowledge 

 of comparative anatomy upon which to base their 

 researches among the prehistoric. The more notable of 

 them may be enumerated before going on to a discussion 

 of the American contributions to the science. 



They were, first, Louis Agassiz, a pupil of Cuvier and 

 later a resident of America, whose researches on the fos- 

 sil fishes of Europe are a monumental work, the result of 

 ten years of investigation in all of the larger museums of 

 that continent, and which appeared in 1833-43, while he 

 was yet a young man. The fishes were practically the 

 only fossil vertebrates to come within the scope of his 

 investigations, for his later time was consumed in the 

 study of glaciers and of recent marine zoology. Another 

 student of these most primitive vertebrates who left 

 an enduring monument was Johannes Muller. Huxley, 

 Traquair, and Jaekel also did masterly work upon this 

 group, while Smith Woodward of the British Museum is 

 considered the highest living authority upon fossil fishes. 



Of the Amphibia, the most famous foreign students 

 were Brongniart, Jaeger, Burmeister, Von Meyer, and 

 Owen, although Owen's claim to eminence lies rather in 

 the investigations of fossil reptiles which he began in 

 1839 and continued over a period of fifty years of 

 remarkable achievement. Not only did he describe the 

 dinosaurs of Great Britain in a series of splendidly illus- 

 trated monographs, but extended his researches to the 

 curious reptilian forms from the Karroo formation of 

 South Africa. It was to him, moreover, that the estab- 

 lishment of the true position of the famous ArchcEopteryx 

 as the earliest known bird and not a reptile is due. Von 

 Meyer also enriched the literature of fossil reptiles, 

 discussing exhaustively those occurring in Germany, 

 while Huxley's classic work on the crocodiles as well as 

 on dinosaurs, and the labors of Buckland, Fraas, Koken, 

 Von Huene, Gaudry, Hulke, Seeley, and Lydekker have 

 added immensely to our knowledge of the group. 



Of the birds, which at best are rare as fossils, our 

 knowledge, especially of the huge flightless moas, is due 

 largely again to Owen, and his realization of the syste- 

 matic position of Archceopteryx has already been men- 

 tioned. 



