Editorial Comment. 117 
In 1898 Prof. O. C. Marsh, then acting as an honorary cur- 
ator of vertebrate fossils, transferred a portion of the collec- 
tion made by him under the auspices of the U. S. Geological 
Survey, to the museum, and the history of the section might 
well begin with this date. After the death of Prof. ]\Iarsh the 
entire collection belonging to the government was transferred 
to the museum, as has been noted in a prevous number of this 
journal.* As is there stated, the actual number of specimens 
represented in the collection cannot be stated, since they range 
from minute teeth of fossil mammals to individual specimens 
Aveighing from 500 to 2,000 pounds each. The collections are 
rich in Dinosauria, especially in Triceratops and Stegosaurus, 
while the series of Titanotherium skulls is probably the best in 
existence, containing more than fifty complete examples al- 
ready cleaned and a number in the rough. 
Among the specimens thus transferred are the types of for- 
ty or more species, including dinosaurs and Jurassic, Creta- 
ceous and Tertiary mammals, the more important of which are 
as follows : 
DINOS.\URS. JURASSIC MAMMALS. 
Labrosaurus ferox, Paurodon valens, 
Camptosaurus nanus, Menacodon rarus, 
Triceratops calicornis-, Ennacdon affinis, 
Triceratops Obtusus, Ennacdon crassus, 
Triceratops elatus, Laodon venustus. 
Ceratops montanus, cretaceous mammals. 
Ceratops alticornis, . 
■r,, 1 Pnconodon crassus, 
Pleurocoelus nanus, „ . , . . 
c^ J. Crmiolodon agilis, 
Stegosaurus stenops, ^ , , » > 
e. 1 . t elacodon prsestans, 
Stegosaurus sulcatus, ^ , , 
Oracodon cenulus, 
CROCiDiLES. Allacodon fortis, 
Rhj'tidon rostratus. Batodon tenuis. 
snakes. tertiary mammals. 
Coniophis precedens. Titanotherium dispar, 
Trigonias obsorni. 
The work of cleaning and mounting vertebrate fossils is slow 
and expensive and it will be many years before the museum, 
at the present rates, can exhibit a series of these interesting re- 
mains which will be at all satisfactory. A beginning has, how- 
ever, been made. 
* American Geologist, March, 1900, pp. 171-173. 
