MCMM/Kl) l)/.\('S.\(h' 



97 



Trachod( 



To the left of Hrontosaiiius arc two ('()iiii)l('t(' sjx ciiiicns ot" the duck- 

 l»ill('(l dinosaur TniclKK/on. One sliows tlic animal erect 

 and standiuii; on «2;uar(l. wliile the otlier is sliown f'cedinn- on 

 slicllfish and plants of the Cretaceous s\vani])s of Montana. 

 Mummied Most wonderful, perhaps of all the specimens shown 



Dinosaur jicrt" is a "nunnmy" of Tracliodon in which the texture 



of the skin is preserved. 



The animal is lyinjj; on its hack and, in spite of its crushed condition, 

 its form is easily distin<>;uishal)le. It i^rohably died on a sand })ank or 

 near a shoal where the hot winds dried u]) the flesh until the skin adhered 

 to the hones like a close-fit tin«i; <;i()ve, and was subseciuently buried by a 

 flood. 



Section of the skin of Traohodon showin? the small scutes with which the animal wa? covered. 

 About natural size. 



Other specimens shown in the hall include the smaller carnivorous 

 dinosaurs, the horned dinosaurs with, in one instance at least, a skull 

 seven feet in length, and giant birds possessed of teeth. There is also the 

 finback lizard, one of the most ancient of fossil reptiles; Diadectes, sl 

 reptile with a soHd-boned skull and Eryops, a primitive amphibian. The 

 finest collection of fossil turtles in the world will be found on the south 

 side of the hall. 



In the Tower of the Southeast Pavilion are displayed the fossil fishes 

 which belong to a much earlier period than the mammals 

 Fossil Fishes and reptiles, some of them having lived twenty to fifty 

 millions of years ago. ]\Iany of these forerunners of back- 

 boned animals are quit eunhke any living fishes and are probably only very 

 indirectly related to them; .some were small, curiously encased in shells; 

 others, shown in the three cases in front of the visitor, attained large size and 



