The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-08-11
BUILDING A WHALE.
,rcoNsTRUCTING THE FOSSIL An
CEsTOR FOR ATLANTA.

| nil Pre-Adamic Whale Lived Half
MILLION Years Ago, and Had
,.gs-Mmde of Wood and Uncle
sans Money PuID-Remains of
These sZeugIOdOns" Are Plentiful,
mt This Is the First Specimen
Ever Mounted.
From the Hartford Times.
The National museum has Just finished
~ building Of a monster whose like has
- been seen in the world for at least
III a million years.
I, is a zeuglOdon-the first one ever
.,,pntei and restored. For a long time
e,isutists have been puzzling and disput-
try over this species of animal, fossil re-
mains Of which are found in large guam
+i,i-s in Alabama and Mississippi Speci-
mems have actually been exhibited as the
skeletons of veritable sea serpents. The
ersature was at first supposed to be a rep
t5s but now it is known to have been
giant cetacean. 1t was an ancestor of
tbe modern whales. and a remarkable
point about it was that it had legs.
After it had been settled that the beast
vas a mammal, some scientific men as
serted that it belonged to the seal family.
whether it had legs or not was an open
question: To settle the point the Ma
eonal museum sent an expert, Mr..
i Charles Schuchert. to Mississippi with in,
s-ructions to procure a complete skeleton
Of a zeuglodon If obtainable, sparing
neither pains nor money in the quest.
He had no trouble in finding plenty of
the bones. which in some localities may
be dug out of the ground in quantities
with spade and pickaxe. Unfortunately,
they are nearly always in such poor condi
ton as to be valueless, being broken up
by the action of frost mainly. When bur
led bones are permeated by moisture, a
freeze skaters them. However, Mr..
Schuchert succeeded in getting two fairly
good skeletons, which, though lacking
some of their parts, We're better than any
specimens discovered up to date. One Of
them had the bones of both fore legs.
The authorities of the National muse
um thought il would be a good idea to
make a restoration of this fossil whale
for the Atlanta exposition. This task
they confined to one of the greatest liV-
ing PSYCHOLOGISTS, Mr.. Frederick A. Lu-
cas-. 1t was a labor of enormous diff
Guilty, requiring the highest order of
knowledge. All of the parts of the skel-
eton not being at hand, II was necessary
10 supply the missing bones, and this had
10 be done with scientific accuracy, and
not by guesswork. OF course, some small
Hlluue OF lIldslnullOn was allowable.
The original bones were too heavy, too
fragile and too precious to be employed
in the restoration, which is built of wood,
Wire-cloth and PAPER mache.
Mr.. Lucas and his assistants have been
engaged on the job for three months, and
now the skeleton of the fossil cetacean
Is finished. and ready to be packed up for
transportation. Nobody would imagine
that it was artificial, so natural do the
bones" look il is a huge affair. If IL
We're set up in an ordinary house, with
the nose of the creature at the front door,
the end of the tail would stick out of the
gate at the back yard. 1t is fifty feet
long. But that is not very big for a zeuS-
lodon, individuals of whose kind attain
are stories of modern sperm whales as
long as that. but nobody ever put tape
line on q. specimen that was over fifty feet.
The right whale had an enormous head.
NAL The zeuglodon was built on prin-
ciples exactly opposite. Its head and chest
were remarkably small the former being
only about four feet long, while the tail
was simply immense. Mr.. Lucas says
that the head must have had TO hustle
in a lively way for food in order to keep
such tail going. But this monster of
bygone ages was we'll able to provide din
ners for itself. 1t was a very fierce car
nivorouS beast, subsisting chiefly, doubt
less upon the fishes which swarm in the
skull shows that the muscles for biting
We're tremendously powerful. At first
glance, the head suggests a likeness 10
the alligator; but the jaws come to sharp
points at the snout.
The general build of the animal indi-
Gates that it was active, voracious and pre-
datory. Its teeth are large and Of such
shape as to suggest the idea of ferocity.
They are forty in number, the first eight
in each jaw being somewhat like those of
an alligator-sharp, strong and canine
like. These are meant for Selling and
tearing. Back of them IS a series of fiat
teeth for cutting, the edges of which are
eoarsely serrated. 1t is still an open ques-
ton whether the zeuglodon had hind legs
or not. The fore legs were only about four
feet long and could hardly have been of
any service, except as swimming paddles.
Undoubtedly they terminated in paddles
corresponding to hands, but the bones OF
the fingers have not been found. The teeth
are always scattered about where the re-
mains are dug up, being loose in the jaws
ike those Of alligators and modern ceta-
ceaus.. Thus they are washed out.
Aeuglodons, in their time, must have
oeen exceedingly numerous, judging from
me astonishing quantities of their remains
Indt are dug up. The first specimen to
attract scientific attention was found in
Alabama by DIR. Harlan, in 1884. Along
III the torues Judge Creagh was clearing
a farm in the same state and came across
80 many OF the bones that they were ac-
luaIly an obstacle to agriculture. To get
10 OF them they were piled in heaps with
oTnnsh and burned. The latest edition of
Dana Geology" repeats an old and quite
erroneous statement to the effect that far
mers IN Alabama use the fossil bones of
11Suglodons for building stone walls.
uAough not so numerous as this yarn
would imply, they are frequently dug up
III me helds. One reason for the incom-
pleleheSs OF the remains is found in the
great size of the animals. When a skele-
IN sixty or seventy feet long has lain
puIled near the surface of the ground for
nuuureds of thousands of years, rain is
peIty sure to cut gullies across it and
taiIy away sections of it. What happens
~ 1t lett IS exposed to the disintegrating
1Iion OF water and frost.
beng mistaken at first for a gigantic
. repIle, the zeuglodon received the name
Ddsllosaurus, or king lizard" The
IiOI was corrected in 1889 by the natu-
"a Inst owen, who recognized the creature
- o. d mammal and gave to it the now-ac-
TyL3Ieq title, which signifies ''yoke-tooth'
~ l's mad reference to the peculiar shape
", some OF its teeth. In 1S45 the fossil
npnale tell into the hands of a fakir. His
oo 9llie was Albert Koch. He managed to
oS 49, st an excellent skull and the vertebras
sgEeral specimens. The latter he strung
ar52 tier TO the length of 100 feet or so,
aiitlie composite was exhibited as the
soseu skeleton of a pre- Noachian sea
tbiPeht In this guise it was exhibited in
na country and in Europe, under the
7TIbine OF the hydrarchus, or water king"
b,- ''uSh the cheat was promptly exposed,
e1L sClentlhc men, the material was or
~, Vdlue that the so-called snake was
N