ENTRANCE HALL 



The only objects at present on the lower floor of 

 the Entrance Hall are the bones of the large whale 

 formerly on display Id the Museum. It was dis- 

 placed by the much smaller but more perfect specimen 

 in the gallery of Agassiz Hall. This specimen must 

 have had a length in the flesh of over 60 feet. 



To the right of the first flight of stairs is a slab of 

 Triassic sandstone from the Connecticut valley, show- 

 ing large footprints. Thousands of such footprints 

 have been found, and for a long time were supposed 

 to be those of birds. Later it was found that they 

 were made by huge reptiles with many bird-like 

 characters, called the Dinosauria. The pelvis and 

 hind limbs were much like those of the ostrich, while 

 in many species the fore limbs were so small propor- 

 tionally as to be of little use for locomotion. Certain 

 of this group were the largest land animals known, 

 the Atlantasaurus being sixty to one hundred feet 

 long. 



Fossil Bones from Charleston. — The mention of ele- 

 phants usually carries the mind to Africa or Asia, but 

 the extensive mining of phosphate near Charleston 

 has revealed that at an early date, probably before 



