THE COLLECTION OF FOSSIL VERTEBRATES. 



By W. D. Matthew, Ph.D., 

 ciate Curator. Department of Vertebrate Palaeontology. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



Introduction 5 



What F< tssils Are. The Divisions of Geological Time. How Fossil Skele- 

 tons are Mounted and Exhibited in this Hall. General Arrange- 

 ment of the Collections. 



East Corridor. Xo. 405. Fossil Marine Reptiles 10 



How they come to be Buried, Fossilized, Found and Collected. Ple- 

 siosaurs. Mosasaurs. Ichthyosaurs. Fishes. 



East Wing. No. 406. Fossil Mammals 12 



Arrangement. Titanotheres. Rhinoceroses. Horses. Primitive 

 Hoofed Mammals. Primitive Clawed Mammals. Elephants. 

 Mammoths and Mastodons. Artiodactyls. South American 

 Fossil Mammals. Instances of Evolution. Restorations. Trans- 

 parencies. Charts, etc. 



East Wing. No. 407 26 



Fossil Reptiles. 



Dinosaurs: Amphibious, Carnivorous, Beaked. Crocodiles. Lizards. 

 Turtles. Primitive Reptiles. 



Fossil Amphibians. Stcgocephalia 31 



Fossil Fishes. Dinichthys. Green River Fishes 32 



Introduction. 



When* we dig beneath the present surface of the ground we 

 sometimes find remains of ancient cities, dwellings, bones of men 

 and animals, buried many centuries ago under accumulations of 

 debris, deposits of river mud or drifted sand. From these have 

 been gleaned many facts concerning the early history of man- 

 kind of which there is no written chronicle. From the study of 

 these facts the science of Archaeology has arisen, the science 

 which deals with the early history of mankind, with the evolu- 

 tion of civilization. 



Most of the lower animals of which the archaeologist finds 

 traces are like those now living, although a few have what Fos- 

 become extinct. But in those more ancient deposits sils Are. 

 which are now consolidated into elays, sandstones etc., indica- 



5 



