204- Lull — Development of Vertebrate Paleontology. 



were then coming in from the newly discovered fossil 

 localities of the West. The discovery of these forms, 

 one of the most notable events in the history of our 

 science, will bear re-telling. 



The first announcement was made in 1847, when Hiram 

 A. Prout of St. Louis published in the Journal (3, 248- 

 250) the description of the maxillary bone of "Palceo- 

 therium" {=T it another ium proutii) from near White 

 Biver, Nebraska. This at once drew the attention of 

 geologists and paleontologists to the Bad Lands, or 

 Mauvaises Terres, which were to prove so highly produc- 

 tive of fossil forms. About the same time S. D. Culbert- 

 son of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, submitted to the 

 Academy of Natural Sciences at Philadelphia some fos- 

 sils sent to him from Nebraska by Alexander Culbertson. 

 These were afterward described by Leidy in the Pro- 

 ceedings of the Academy, together with the paleotheroid 

 jaw, in addition to which three other collections which 

 had been made were also placed at his disposal for study. 



This aroused the interest of Doctor Spencer F. Baird 

 of the Smithsonian Institution, who sent T. A. Culbert- 

 son to the Bad Lands to make further collections. The 

 latter was successful in securing a valuable series of 

 mammalian and chelonian remains. These, together 

 with other specimens from the same locality, were sent 

 to Leidy, for, as Baird remarked, Leidy, although only 

 thirty years of age, was the only anatomist in the United 

 States qualified to determine their nature. The outcome 

 of Leidy 's study of this material was -"The Ancient 

 Fauna of Nebraska,' ' published in 1853, and constituting 

 the most brilliant work which up to that time American 

 paleontology had produced. Leidy's determinations, 

 which are in the main correct, are the more remarkable 

 when it is realized that he had little recent osteolog- 

 ical material for comparative study. The forms thus 

 described by him were new to science, of a more gener- 

 alized character than those now living, and yet their 

 distinguished describer recognized, either at that time or 

 a little later, their true relationship to the modern types, 

 The extent of Leidy 's anatomical knowledge was almost 

 Cuvierian, and Cuvier-like he established the fact of the 

 presence of the rhinoceroses, then unheard of in the 

 American fauna, from a few small fragments of molar 

 teeth, an opinion shortly to be fully sustained through the 



