The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-08-15
The Restorntion of a Big Fossil

The National museum has just fin ished the building of a monster, whose like has not been seen in the world for at least half million years.
 It is a zeuglodon, the first one ever mounted and restored For long time scientists have been puzzling and dispu- ting over this species, of animal, fossil remains of which are found in large quantities in Alabama and Mississippi. Specimens have actually been exhibited as the skeletons of veritable sea ser pents. The creature was at first SUD- posed to be a reptile, but now 1t is known to have been a giant cetacean. It was an ancestor of the modern whales, and a remarkable point about 1t was that 1t had legs.
 After 1t had been settled that the beast was mammal some scientific men asserted that it belonged to the seal family. Whether 1t had legs CT not was an open question. To settle the point the National museum sent an ex- pert, MT. Charles Schuchert, to Missis- sippi, with instructions to procure a complete skeleton of zeuglodon if ob- tainable, sparing neither pains nor mon- ey in the quest. He had no trouble in finding plenty of the bones, which tn some localities may be dug out of the ground in quantities with spade and pick-axe Unfortunately, they are nearly always in such poor condition as i to be valueless, being broken up by the action of frost mainly. When buried bones are permeated by moisture a freeze shatters them. However, MT. Schuchert succeeded in getting two
 fairly good skeletons. One of them had | the bones of both fore legs.
 The authorities of the National muse
 um thought it would be a good idea to
 make a restoration of this fossil whale
 for the Atlanta exposition. This task they confided to the osteologist, MT Frederick A. Lucas. It was labor ot enormous difficulty, requiring the high ct order of Knowledge. All of the parts
 of the skeleton not being at hand, it was
 necessary to supply the missing bones and this had to be done with guess
 work. Of course some small latitude of | imagination was allowable. The origi-
 nal bones were too heavy, too fragile
 and too precious to be employed in the restoration, which is built of wood, wire cloth and papier mache.
 MT. Lucas and his assistants have been engaged on the job for three
 months, and now the skeleton of the fossil cetaeean is finished and ready tC
 be packed up for transportation. It is a huge affair If II were set up in ar Iordinary house, with the nose of tht creature at the front door, the end oi the tail would stick out of the gate o
 the back yard. It is fifty feet long
 But that is not very big for a zeuglo
 don, individuals of whose kind attain (
 length of seventy feet or more. There are stories of modern sperm whales @! long as that, but nobody ever put z
 tape line on "a. specimen that was ovel fifty feet.
 Zeuglodons in their time must have
 been exceedingly numerous, judging from the astonishing quantities of thei
 remains that are dug up. The frs ecimen to attract scientific attention
 was found in Alabama by pr. Harlan
 in 1884. Along in the forties Judge Creagh was clearing a farm in tn, same state and came across so many e
 the bones that they were actually al