100 FOSSIL SEA REPTILES 



the matrix in which the bones are imbedded is carefully chipped away 

 and the missing parts restored in cement and plaster. The bones are 

 then assembled as in life. In the specimens on exhibition the restored 

 parts differ in color from the original parts of the skeleton and can 

 readily be distinguished. 



As a whole, the Museum collections of fossil vertebrates are believed 

 to be the finest in the world, if we take into consideration not merely 

 numbers, but also variety, quality and perfected methods of preparation 

 and exhibition. The collections illustrating the evolution of the horse 

 are undoubtedly larger than those of all other institutions combined. The 

 collections of Permian reptiles, of Jurassic and Cretaceous dinosaurs, of 

 turtles, of North American Tertiary mammals, and of extinct mammals 

 of South America, are likewise of the first rank. There are more than 

 ninety complete skeletons on exhibition, several hundred skulls and 

 nearly two thousand jaws or other parts of various species. About ten 

 times this number are in storage, reserved for study and research, or 

 not yet prepared for exhibition. 



East Corridor 

 FOSSIL SEA REPTILES 



Directly in front of the elevator is a wall case in which the most 

 recently acquired specimens are placed. The cases attached to the wall 

 near the stairway contain skeletons of a huge marine lizard, and of the 

 Ichthyosaurs or Fish-like Reptiles, which show the tremendous pressure 

 to which fossils are often subjected and the fragmentary condition in 

 which they are found. 



South Pavilion 

 HALL OF THE AGE OF MAN 



The South Pavilion is devoted to early man, represented by a series 

 of casts of the more noteworthy specimens, and to his contemporaries, 

 the mammoths and mastodons and the giant ground sloths of South 

 America. 



In front of the entrance is the collection illustrating what is known 

 of the early history of our own race as shown by the remains of earl}' 

 E 1 Man man anc ^ ^ le mi l^ ements usea " by him. &s fossil remains 

 of man are rare and usually very fragmentary, these are 

 represented mainly by casts, but they include examples of all the more 

 perfect and more noteworthy specimens that have been found, such as 

 the Neanderthal, Gibraltar, Chapelle aux Saints, Spy and Piltdown. 



