Lull — Development of Vertebrate Paleontology. ^15 



on the carnivores and edentates of the Santa Cruz forma- 

 tion. It is as a systematist in research and as an educa- 

 tor that Scott has attained his highest usefulness. 



The man who, next to the three pioneers, has attained 

 the highest reputation in vertebrate paleontologic 

 research, is Henry Fairfield Osborn. Graduate of 

 Princeton in the same class that produced Scott, Osborn 

 served for a time as professor of comparative anatomy 

 in that institution, and in 1891 was called to New York to 

 organize the department of zoology in Columbia Uni- 

 versity and that of vertebrate paleontology in the Ameri- 

 can Museum of Natural History. He had, early in his 

 career, gone west in company with Professor Scott, and 

 had collected material from the Eocene formation of 

 Wyoming, upon which they based their first joint paper 

 in 1878, Osborn 's first independent production, a memoir 

 on two genera of Dinocerata, appearing in 1881. A num- 

 ber of papers followed, on the Mesozoic Mammalia, on 

 Cope's tritubercular theory, and on certain apparent evi- 

 dences for the transmission of acquired characters. It 

 was, however, with his acceptance of the New York 

 responsibilities, especially at the American Museum, 

 that Osborn 's most significant work began. Aided first 

 by Wort-man and Earle, later by W. D. Matthew and 

 others, he has built up the greatest and most complete 

 collection of fossil vertebrates extant; its value, how- 

 ever, was largely enhanced through the purchase of the 

 private collection of Professor Cope, which of course 

 included a large number of types. The American 

 Museum collection thus contains not only a vast series 

 of representative specimens from every class and order 

 of vertebrates, secured by purchase or expedition from 

 nearly all the great localities of the world, but an exhi- 

 bition series of skulls and partial and entire skeletons 

 and restorations which no other institution can hope to 

 equal. Based upon this wonderful material is a large 

 amount of research, filling many volumes, published for 

 the greater part in the bulletin and memoirs of the 

 Museum. This research is not only the product of the 

 staff, including Walter Granger, Barnum Brown, W. D. 

 Matthew, and W. K. Gregory, but also of a number of 

 other American and some foreign paleontologists as well. 



Professor Osborn's own work has been voluminous, his 

 bibliography from 1877 to 1916 containing no fewer than 



