The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1899-07-29
GIANT REPTILE BONES.
Some That Are Being Unearthed and
Prepared for Exhibition In
This Country.

The Museum of Natural History hopes
In time to make a complete biographical
survey of the fossil fauna of North
Aemrica, and to add to its collections
skeletons of every discoverable species.
For eight years it has had parties work
ing in the field collecting fossil remains
of entertainments. The collection now
on exhibition there is remarkable one,
including every species which has been
discovered in North America from the
first appearance of mammals down to
the Oligocene period. AT the present
rate of work the collection may be COM
pleted to cover the entire Tertiary pc
riod, some 100000 years, within the
next ten years. In addition to this,
work has recently been begun on the
geologic period just preceding this, that
of the gigantic reptiles, and the great
leg bones seen at the academy exhibit
ton are the first results now appearing
in the museum.
Every summer the field expeditions
60 to the great fossil beds of Wyoming
and Kansas, places where, millions OF
years ago, were the great fresh-water
lakes, and about which lived the mon
sters, whose skeletons they are seek
ing. Here they begin by prospecting
along the bluffs, or over the beds OF
hard dry clay, in which the bones are
found. When one is found protruding
above the surface, work is begun by
cutting away the clay which surrounds
the bone, not enough to lay the bones
completely bare, but to take out the
mass of clay in which they are en-
bedded. The bones are often found
broken into many fragments, and il
they are laid completely bare in the
field, as has always been done up to
quite recently, they would come apart,
and there would be great danger 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 to hold
them together, and to cover the whole
with a plaster cast. This is boarded
up and wrapped with wet rawhide,
which shrinks as it dries, and binds the
whole firmly together. These great
blocks, weighing from 100 to 1,5oo
pounds, are then Grated and shipped to
the museum, where the matrix is taken
off and the fragments removed at once,
just as they come out, thus avoiding the
difficulty of solving the dissected puzzle
which would be encountered if the
pieces were separated in the field. The
bones thus completed are mounted in
as nearly as possible their relative po-
sitions. A complete record of every
stage of the proceedings is kept by pho
Biography, another new feature of the
work, affording, as can readily be imag
ined, more adequate and graphic idea
of the process than could be given by
many pages of printed reports.
One of the specimens thus unearthed
and prepared is part of the skeleton of
a huge herbivorous reptile called by
Cope camarasaur, and by the late
Prof. Marsh a brontosaur. Of this slkel-
eton the museum has two of the dorsal
and 10 of the caudal vertebrae and
parts of the pelvis and leg bones. The
scientist finds many points of par
ticular interest in it, among others the
fact that it shows an error in Prof.
Marsh's restoration of the skeleton,
several dorsal vertebrae being found
which Prof. Marsh had omitted. But
to most people the interesting thing
about the skeleton is the fact that the
bones show unmistakable evidence of
having been broken and gnawed by
the teeth of some other animal, presum-
ably one of the fiesh-eating reptiles,
whose bones are found in the same
clay beds. 1t sets ones imagination
hard task to picture the confict-such
a one as might take place, for instance,
between an elephant and a tiger, if
the elephant were so feet long and 16
feet high and the tiger in proportion.
A more perfect specimen is the skel-
eton of the diplodocus longus, an an
imal which must have been something
like 60 feet in length. His hind quar-
tiers, including some As feet of his back
and tail, have been found. The verte-
brae show marvellous combination of
lightness and strength in their struc-
ture, and the pelvis shows that power
full muscles were attached to it, max
ing it clear that this tremendous 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 bal
anced by their long tails that they
could rear up and get the benefit of al
most the whole of their great length
when wading in deep water.
Another skeleton which will soon be
put on exhibition is that of monosaur,
or sea lizard, nearly SO feet long, which
was found in Kansas. 1t is the most
perfect one that has ever been round.
IN. Y. Post.