4 



NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



very large number of type specimens from the paleozoic strata of Amer - 

 ica. Some part of these, specially that utilized in the early volumes of 

 the paleontologic reports, was the personal property of the author of 

 those reports and passed from his hands to the possession of the Amer- 

 ican museum of natural history in the city of New York. Till the prep- 

 aration of this catalogue was begun, no serious effort to bring together 

 the type specimens in the state museum of these and other descriptions, 

 into one place or record was ever carried to completion. Some years 

 ago the writer undertook the work of publishing lists, believed to be 

 complete at the time, of certain of the organic groups, namely the Crus- 

 tacea, Vermes and Cephalopoda. 1 But a revision of these lists has 

 shown considerable omissions, due somewhat to normal growth as inves- 

 tigations have progressed but more to the fact that these types have 

 been scattered all through the collections of the museum both in the 

 State Hall and in the Geological Hall. It has been an arduous task to 

 search out and bring together these specimens, which during the past half 

 century have become so widely and carelessly diffused, but their number 

 is noteworthy, and the importance of this record justifies the labor put 

 on it. 



This catalogue is arranged as follows : the general classification is 

 biologic and follows only the broadest subdivisions. Each entry repre- 

 sents a single specimen and is accompanied by two numbers, the first 

 serial, the second fractional and corresponding to the number borne by 

 the specimen. In this fractional number the numerator carries the num- 

 ber assigned to the major division, the genus and the species, while the 

 denominator indicates the number of the specimen of the species. Thus, 

 the sponge Dictyospongia sceptrum Hall (sp.) carries the num- 

 ber 22ii_ 2000 is the number assigned to the Sj>o?igiae, 2260 that 

 assigned to the genus Dictyospongia, 2264 the number for D. 

 sceptrum, the fourth species of that genus, and — 2 - A the number for 

 the second specimen of this species. In the scheme of numbering the 

 following is the allotment made for the major biologic divisions : 



Plantae 100 Lamellibranchiata 9000 



Protozoa 1000 Gastropoda > . . . . 10000 



Spongiae 2000 Pteropoda n 000 



Cnidaria 3000 Cephalopoda 12000 



Echinodermata 4000 I 13000 



Crustacea I 



Vermes 5000 ^ 14000 



Bryozoa 6000 Tracheata 15000 



Pisces 16000 



57000 

 8000 



l N. Y. state geol. 11th an. rep't. 1892. p. 31-53 ; 12th an. rep't. 1893. p. 57-104. 



