114 



MUMMIKl) DISOSAVRS 



Mummied 

 Dinosaur 



Most wonderful jxThaps of all the specimens shown 

 here is a "mummy" of Trachodon in which the texture 

 of the skin is preserved. The animal is lying on its back 

 and, in spite of its crushed condition, its form is easily distinguishable. 

 It probably died on a sand bank or near a shoal where the hot winds 

 dried up the flesh until the skin adhered to the bones like a close-fitting 

 glove, and was subsequently buried by a flood. 



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 



RESTORATION OF NAOSAURUS 



One of Nature's jokes. Professor Cope, who was also a joker, suggested that the liigh fin served 

 as a sail, by means of whieh Naosaurus sailed over the lakes near which it lived. 



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

 reptile with a solid-l)oned 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. 



[See Handbook No. 5, Dinosaurs.] 



In the Tower of the Southeast Pavilion are displayed the fo.ssil fishes 

 which belong to a much earlier period than the mammals 

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

 millions of years ago. Many of these forerunners of back- 

 boned animals are quite unlike 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 were evidently formidable creatures. One of them in 



