The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-05-13
BONES OF GIANT REPTILES.
How They Are Unenrthed and Pre-
pared for Exhibition.

ffFCm the New York Evening Post
At the last exhibition Of the Academy of
SCIENCE there were to be seen In the divis-
ion OF paieopfology several gigantic skele-
ton legs that looked, TO the casual and I'M
scientific observer as If they might have
belonged to some stork or ostrich OF colos-
sal size, say. thirty or forty feet high. And
as such the unlearned observer might pass
them by with no more than a vague won
der at their size. TO the scientific man,
however, they tell a different story. and
an extremely interesting one. These huge
pillar-lke legs are not those Of birds at
all, but OF great prehistoric bird-like rep
tiles, and represent some of the most i'm
portant work in paleonto.ogy that has ever
been done.
The Museum of Natural History hopes in
time 10 make complete biological survey
of the fossil fauna Of North America, and
10 add 10 its collections skeletons of every
discoverable species. For eight years 1t has
mad parties working in the field collecting
fossil remains Of extinct mammals. The
collection now on exhibition there is re-
markable one, including every species
winch has been discovered in North Amer
ioa from the first appearance of mann
mas down to the Oligocene period. At the
present rate of work the collection may be
completed TO cover the entire Tertiary pc
Rod, some two million years, within the
next ten years. In addition 10 this, work
has recently been begun on the geologic
period just preceding this, that of the gi-
gantic reptiles, and the great leg bones
seen at the Academy exhibition are the
nrst results now appearing in the museum.
Every summer the field expeditions go
TO the great fossil beds of Wyoming and
Kansas, places where, millions of years
ago. We're the great fresh-water lakes In
I a hEa mkt I.
skeletons they are seeking. Here they be-
gin by prospecting along the bluffs. or over
the beds of hard clay, in which the bones
are found. When one Is found protruding
ABOVE the surface, work is begun by care
4ully cutting away the clay which sur
SOUNDS the bone, not enough TO lay the
bones completely bare, but to take out the
mass of clay in which they are embedded.
Ihe bones are often found broken iuto
many fragments. and If they were LAID
completely bare in the field, as has always
been done up to quite recently they would
come apart, and there would be great dan
| ger IN determining the relative positions
OF the rest. The new method of handling
| them is to leave them embedded in enough
OF the original clay 20 hold them together.
ana TO cover the whole with plaster cast.
This is boarded up and wrapped with wet
raWhlde, which shrinks as it dries, and
! These
great blocks, weighing from 100 to 1 500
pounds, are then Grated and shipped to
the museum, where the matrix Is taken
OH ana the fragments removed at once.
JUST as they come out thus avoiding the
dlfhculty of solving the dissected puzzle
which would be encountered If the nieces
| were separated in the field The bones
thus completed are mounted in as nearly
as possible their relative positions. A
COfnrlQfp Of
ceedlngs IS kept by photography another
new feature of the work, affording. as can
readily be imagined, more adequate ana
graphic idea of the process than could he
gwen by many pages of printed reports.
one OF the specimens thus unearthed and
| prepared is part of the skeleton of a huge
heroiverous reptile called by Cope a CANA
rasaur, and by the late Prof. Marsh a
| Brontosaur. OF this skeleton the. nnusaur
mas two of the dorset and nineteen of the
caudal vertebrate, and parts of the pelvis
and leg bones. The scientist finds MANY
! points of particular interest in it. among
others the fact that 1t shows an error in
Prof. Marshs restoration of the skeleton.
| several dorsal vertebrate being found which
Prof. Marsh had omitted But to
most people the interesting thing
about the skeleton is the fact
| that the bones show unmistsk
|
and gnawed by the teeth of some other
animal, presumably one of the fiesh-eating
reptiles, whose bones are found Ia the
same clay beds. 1t sets ones Imagination
hard task to picture the confiict--such a
one as might take place, for instance. be-
tween an elephant and a tiger, If the ele-
4 phant were eighty feet long and sixteen
feet high, and the tiger in proportion
A more perfect specimen is the skeleton
of the diplodocus longus, an animal which
must have been something like sixty feet
in length. His hind quarters, including
some forty-five feet of his back and tail.
have been found, The vertebrate show a
marvellous combination of lightness and
strength in their structure, and the pelvis
shows that powerful muscles were attach
ed to Il, making IL clear that this tremen-
douS tail was no mere ornament to its
wearer, but was strong propeller in the
water and an ugly weapon on land. Both
this beast and the brontosaur were so
balanced by their long tails that they could
| rear up and get the benefit of almost the
whole Of their great length when wading
in deep water.
Another skeleton which will soon be put
on exhibition is that OF a mososaur. or
sea lizard, nearly thirty-slx feet long.
which was found in Kansas. II Is the
most perfect one that has ever been found.