Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-12-26
NORTH AMERICAN MoNKEYA
New Theory as to the Original Distri-
button Of Animals.

From the New York Tribune.
In the last summer two Yale scientific
explorers-Dr. J. L. Workman and G. r.
Wieiand Of the staff OF the Peabody mu-
scum at Yaie-carried on the most success
full explorations OF the fossil deposits In
Wyoming that have been reported since
the days OF Prof. o. c. Marsh. MI. VIE
land returned to Yale n few weeks ago.
after five months stay In Wyoming, Da-
kota and Montana. and brought back with
him a considerable collection OF mammoth
prehistoric North American turtles. be-
sides a valuable collection of fossil plants
which he found in the eocene beds Of those
regions. and which add their proof to the
theory that at one time all the northern
part OF the United States was tropical In
climate and bore most luxurious tropical
plant life. The discoveries of DIR. Wort
man are regarded OF great scientific value,
North American monkeys.
In paper which DR.. Workman Is soon to
publish In the American Journal OF Science
his fossil monkey Will be fully described.
Yale scientists who have seen the speci-
mems which he brought back with him
rom Wyoming nay without reserve that
Dr. Woefman's discovery Il to be ranked
WIN 1ne most important archaeological
DR.. Wortman's collaborators in palaeonto-
logical work at Yale say that his work and
the deductions he has been led to draw
from It will prove the beginnings of an en-
tirely new understanding Of the origin and
distribution Of mammalia on the earth
While Dr. Workman is to announce this dis
covery and the theory he has drawn from
1t to the scientific world shortly this Is the
nrst announcement that he has permitted
to be made OF ii in the public press.
The generally accepted position of zoolo-
glsts and biologists at the present day as
to the origin of animal life on the earth is
to bo xal
the present tropical zones: that the North
American faunae branched out from the
Old world faunae by migration from their
ancestral home and that man original ted
somewhere in the dense tropical regions OF
the old world. Java, probably. 1t is not too
much to say that If tne long series of in
designations devoted to this subject by DR.
workman prove to be true these hypothesis
or the scientists Will have to be remodeled
TO large extent From the monkey fossil
remains discovered by Leidy and Marsh
some twerty-odd years ago. and from the
new and conclusive discovery made by DR.
workman TINS summer, an entirely new and
much more logical theory Is deduced
The theory OF a boreal origin of the apes
monkeys and lemurs. and, in fact of the
great majority of the mammalia, supported
as II Is by the facts in the possession OF
Dr. Workman, and collected to a consid-
cradle degree by his own hands, is likely.
when It Is launched. to create a stir in the
opposition to this new view at first" said DR.
Workman today. but I am sure of my
ground, and have abundant and incontro-
vertfble evidence in these fossil remains to
prove it,"
The fossil remains which have led the
Yale scientist to take this advanced sposi-
tion are those of the eocene monkey found
In rock bed In the Bridger basin of Wyo-
ming. Not larger than a common house
cat, this fossil skull is in almost a COM
plete state of preservation, notwithstanding
Its burial in Wyoming rock for perhaps a
million years.