THE 
AMERICAN GEOLOGIST. 
VOL. XXXVI. OCTOBER, 1905. No. 4. 
TEN YEARS PROGRESS IN THE MAMMALIAN PALAEONTOL- 
OGY OF NORTH AMERICA.* 
By Prof. Henry Fairfield Osborn, LL. D-, D Sc, New York. 
Members of the Congress, 
I believe that what you as specialists in the many di- 
verse branches of zoology most desire to hear, are the 
salient results of our recent explorations in America, and 
their broader bearings on the general principles of zoology. 
In 1878, the late professor O. C. Marsh published his 
notable address entitled : Introduction and Succession of 
Vertebrate Life in North America''. Fifteen years later I 
published a somewhat similar review entitled: Rise of the 
Mammalia in North America' 1 . In the ten years which 
have elapsed exploration has not only been on a larger scale 4 
than ever before, but also more thorough as well as guided 
by the constantly broadening aspects of the science. 
The initial plan of the palseozoological survey under- 
taken by the American Museum was threefold : it was so far 
as possible to secure not only (1) a complete representation 
of certain families of mammals, as was done for mono- 
graphic purposes by Marsh (i.e.Dinocerata, Brontotheriidse) 
* Address of Prof. H. F. Osborn at the International Congress of Zoo- 
logy, Berne, August, 1904. Reprinted from the Compte-Rendu of the 
Congress by permission of the secretary. 
2 i^roc. Amer. Assoe. Adv. Sei., Nashville, 1877, pp. 2H-25S. 
3 Amer. Jour. Sci. 13, xlvi, 1893, pp. 379-392; 44S-4H6. 
4 Large collections have been secured by the .Museums of Princeton 
University and the University of California, by the Carnegie Museum 
Pittsburgh, the Field Columbian Museum. Chicago, and some few addi- 
tions have been made to the famous collection brought together by 
professor Marsh at Yale University. 
'The Department of Vertebrate Palaeontology in the American Mu- 
seum of Natural History was founded with the present writer as Curator 
in 1S91. Associated with him at various times were the following zoolo- 
gists and palaeontologists: Messrs. WoBTMAN, MATTHEW, Eahle, Gidley 
and Brown. Fossil mammals brought from the West, secured by ex- 
change, and by purchase, including the entire collection of the late 
professor Edward D. Cope, now number 9873. The Cop« Reptilian and 
Amphibian Collection is also in the American Museum. 
