2 
JOURNAL OF MAMMALOGY 
Mammalogy began as the science of mammalian life, of the structure 
of mammals as well as of their habits, of their classification based on 
existing life, of the changes shown in geographic distribution (Buff on). 
The founders of this science, Linnaeus and Buffon, naturally paid 
greater attention to external characters, to obvious osteological and 
dental characters, than to some of the internal characters. Buffon 
was impressed with the geographic variation of mammals. The older 
classification up to the time of Owen was based partly upon habits of 
feeding (e.g., Insectivora, Carnivora), and partly on external characters 
(e.g., Pachydermata) . With Cuvier,^ deBlainville,^ and Owen® began 
the more intensive study of the osteology and odontography of the 
mammals, together with the foundations of mammahan palaeontology 
as developed in the master hands of Cuvier and of Owen. Flower 
paid closer attention to the osteology of the mammals and did little 
to develop the odontography. 
In the time of Darwin the subject divided into (a) the zoology and 
(b) the palaeontology of the mammals. This division has gradually 
led to different principles and methods of research based on the differ- 
ent nature of the materials, such as the absence of all soft parts, and 
the fragmentary nature of the hard parts in fossil mammals. An 
intensified and philosophic study of the hard parts became essential to 
progress. 
The more recent tendency among palaeontologists is to bring these 
two branches “ together again (Lydekker, Scott, Wortman, Osborn, 
Matthew, Gregory, Gidley, Miller, and others). The first in this 
country to study the zoology of mammals on Darwinian principles, 
i.e., geographic and ontogenetic variation in color and form, was Allen 
(1876).^® The older school of vertebrate palaeontologists of this coun- 
try, Leidy, Cope, and Marsh, worked almost exclusively on the oste- 
ology of the extinct mammals, but in his later years Cope developed 
the odontography by founding the tritubercular theory. He also 
^ Cuvier, Georges L. C. F. D. Recherches sur les Ossemens Fossiles de Quad- 
ruples. Tomes I-IV, 1812. 
8 deBlainville, H. M. Ducrotay. Osteographie des Mammiferes. 1839-1864. 
^ Owen, Richard. Description of Teeth and Portions of Jaws of Two Extinct 
Quadrupeds (Hyopotamus vectianus and H. bovinus) .... with an attempt 
to develop Cuvier’s idea of the classification of Pachyderms by the number of 
their toes. Quarterly Journal of Geol. Soc. of London, vol. IV, 1848, pp. 103- 
141, pis. VII, VIII. 
Allen, J. A. The American Bison, Living and Extinct. Mem. Mus. Com. 
Zool., Harv. Univ., vol. IV, no. 10, 1876. 
