MASTODONS AND MAMMOTHS dt 



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

 missing parts restored in cemenl and plaster. The hones 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 he 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 num- 

 bers, hut also variety, quality and perfected methods of preparation and 

 exhibit ion. The collections illustrating the evolution of the horse are 

 probably equal to 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 seventy com- 

 plete skeletons on exhibition, several hundred skulls and nearly two thou- 

 sand 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 Fishlike Lizards 



Directly in front of the elevator is a w T all case in which the most recently 

 acquired specimens are placed. The cases attached to the w r all near the 

 stairway contain specimens of huge marine fishlike lizards, which show the 

 tremendous pressure to which fossils are often subjected and the frag- 

 mentary condition in which they are found. 



SOUTH PAVILION 



Mastodons and Mammoths 



The visitor should first enter the South Pavilion in which are shown 

 the skeletons of mammoths and mastodons, the prehistoric relatives of 

 the modern elephants, and of the curious and extraordinary extinct animals 

 which inhabited South America in prehistoric times, 30,000 to 100,000 years 

 ago. On the left is a series of modern skeletons illustrating the evolution 

 of the horse under the hand of man. Here are such extremes as the Shet- 

 land pony, only two feet ten inches high, and the rough-boned draught 

 Skeletons horse, w T hich stands six feet one inch in height. Contrast 



of Modern these with the slender-limbed "Sysonby" the famous race 

 Horses horse, and the Arabian stallion "Ximr." Man by his intel- 



ligence has modified the form of the horse to meet his needs and has 

 accomplished in a small degree but rapidly, what nature has done in an exten- 

 sive w r ay during long ages — as will be seen from the fossil horses in the next 

 hall. The similarity in structure of the skeletons of horse and man is brought 

 out in the exhibit of a rearing horse being controlled by man. A comparison 

 of these two skeletons will show r that with some modification the bones of the 



