The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1882-02-10
THE MISSING LINK.
Professor Cope Finds the skull of a Mon.
key Human in Its FOrmaIiOu.-RichD Dis.
c0veriea Throwing New Light ga Ps G.
historic indigenous u ammOtas.
-. II.

Professor Cope Finds the Skull of a Mon.
key Human IN Its FcTInailon:-Rich Dis
historic indigenous ,saammoths.
philadelphia Times.l
"Do you see anything peculiar about
that? No? Well, l consider that the
most valuable specimen in nv whole |
collection, for it shows conclusively to |
me the descent of man from animals of
the monkey family. prize it very
highly and keep it under lock and key
all the time"
Professor Edward D. Cope, the we'll
known geologist and paleontologist OF
this city, held between his right thumb
and forefnger, as he spoke, a part of a
diminutive skull not larger than the
skull of small ground squirrel.
cit came from the valley of the Big
Horn River, in Wyoming Territory" he
continued, "and is the upper part of the
skull of a species of the marmoset mon
key. 1t was found in the lowest eocene
layer of the tertiary formation, and as
for its age, / can hardly say. The years,
however, run back so far that people
who think this new country would be
considerably surprised if they knew the
figures. From what [ have discovered
in the Big Horn Valley, in the bad lands
of New Mexico, in Colorado, Arizona,
Texas, Kansas, Nebraska and several
other States, [ am led to believe that the
West was a more wonderful country
hundreds of years before the birth of
Columbus than it is now. Think of the
rhinoceros wallowing in the Missouri
River and of the elephant stalking over
the plains of Nebraska. Imagine mon
1 i-r.-- i tLn-''->5 ~ the tree-t0pS OF The
Wind River country and hundreds of
strange animals swarming over the whole
| land
1.-The bones of the two sea serpents
found near Marlboro, New Jersey, a few
days ago, description of which | have
sent for, shows that those hideous crea-
lures were at one time numerous along
the coast. I suppose that the new skel-
| etOns found are similar to the New Jer-
sey serpent skeleton | have in a corner
of my study.
Z" This skull, said Professor Cope, re-
turning to the object which he was hold
ing III his fingers "this skull is remark
ably similar, in miniature, of course, to
the human skull. The brain space is
remarkably large, and is, in fact, several
times larger than the brain space of any
of the skeletons of animals of the same
period of time. The characteristics of
the formation of the human skull are
clearly defined, 50 clearly as to be re-
markable. The teeth are almost the
same as human teeth, while the jaw has
many strong points of similarity. I
| consider this skull as the earliest indica-
ton of the existence of man. It is a new
species OF familiar class, and has hith-
erto been unknown to scientists The
connection between man and this ami
NAL, 1t seems to me, must have been
very close, although, of course, nine men
out of every ten would raise dispute.
No animal at that time, except this pecul-
lar species, had head like that of q
human being, and the brain space, con-
trasted with the brain space of other
animals. or even of the monkeys of to-
day, shows vast superiority of intelli-
gence. But come up stairs and look at
newly-found skeleton of a different
kind"
The Professor led the way through a
door into the next house, 21O2 Pine
street. The hallway was half filled with
boxes of bones and skeletons of animals
of bygone days, while in rooms on either
side the open doors disclosed rows upon
rows Of boxes, small and large, piled
against the wall in apparent disorder. It
was a house full Of bones. Grinnine
skeletons meet the visitor at every turn.
while Ii he were to carelessly lean against
q pile OF boxes the chances are that he
would have found a preserved snake
hanging to his clothes when he moved
away. Passing through the room where
the rhinoceros and elephant skulls doomed
up CHASTITY and grim in the uncertain
light of curtained window, the Profes
sor led the way to the third floor, on
which was situated his study, place
filled to overlooking with books, papers,
statues, skeletons and bones. From
there he went to the work room, where
two or three men were busily engaged in
chipping and digging off the rock encas-
ing a number of newly arrived fossils.
A curiously-shaped skull rested on one
of the tables. A solid bone. about
eighteen inches in length, and varying
from an inch and half to six inches in
thickness, projected from just in front of
the nasel bones, the eye-sockets being in
turn a short distance behind them. This
formidable-looking bone was nearly flat
on the under side, but ran to sharp
edge on the top, thus giving the animal
"a low species of the crocodile tribe-a
terrible weapon for attack and strong,
sharp pillow for seeking food in the bottom
of river. In the ordinary crocodile
the nose is at the extreme end of the
projecting snout but in this animal
which dates back beyond all known
specimens, and is the only one in the
world yet discovered, the nose and the
eyes were close together. The animal
was about twenty feet in length, and
was covered with impenetrable plates of
bone or hardened scales. The jaws |
opened under the eyes and were armed |
with teeth capable of doing terrible ex-
ecution az
Another newly discovered and equally
curious skeleton is that of an animal /
that had the body Of a dog, and the five
toed foot of an elephant, teeth like
peccary, and a long tail. It was not re-
lated to the dog family, however, but |
rather to the tapir tribe, of which it is
az entirely new series, no similar speci-
men having ever before been found. |
Large and small skeletons were found
in the sandstone rock of the
Big Horn Valley.
Professor Cope has in his employ
number of men who do nothirg but hunt I
for the bones of ancient animals of the |
West, and two or three times year he
heads an expedition in person for
the search of fossil remains. His last
expedition was to the bad lands Of New
Mexico, where he made several valuable
among them being new
species Of the three-toed horse. 1t was
while on this trip that he narrowly
escaped the horrors of an outbreak of
the Apache Indians.