The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1921-05-28
SCIENTISTS HUNT
FOR BIG GAME IN
GEOOGIC STRATA

Agate Neb.. May 2S.-fhe annual
lEig game hunt Of trained biologists
and paie0a.ologists of the world is
under way at the Agate Springs
Ranch near here Instead Of usins
high-powered rifles to bag their game,
these expert hunters or rhinorcerOsiS
mastCdons, camel and deer use Il pick
and shovel. The animals sought are
aut live ones, but are the bones %
prehistoric earth travellers oil mil
ron or So years ago.
The Agate Springs Ranch, owned
by Captain James II. Cook, extends
along the Ni0brara river fer ten miles
in Sioux county and is about twenty
five miles southeast OF Harrison. On
i is located what is said to be the
greatest prehistoric bone quarry IN
the wurld.
Since its discovery so years ago
persons Interested in the study of fus-
sill remains have been making eXplor-
ations. During the coming season
the quarrips Will be worked by the
United States National Museum,
Smithsonian Institute. under the di-
rection of J. W. Gidley, and others
The American Museum Of New York
will have the usual party here taking
what they desire lut continuing the
search for Dinohyus ancestral
hog about the size of the OK in height
and weight. 4 fine skeleton OF the
Dinohyus was secured in 1904 by the
Aloril Geological expedition. 1t stood
nearly seven feet in height.
In prehistoric times, the place now
called Agate Springs Ranch is be-
lieved by some to have been a water
hole, similar to the modern African
water holes where at times great
herds OF animals gathered to drink
Other scientists believe the place to
have been once lake and that car
casses drifted to this spot and their
bones dropped Captain Harold l.
Cook, son CT the owner Of the ranch
and consulting engineer, says it seems
more probable that the bone bed is
the result OF great eddy in cove
aiCng the shore line of an immense
river. The carcasses of various herds
and individuals are believed to have
been picked up by the moving water
and lodged in the cove. This, he be-
ieves would account for the partial
seq egation of types as well as the
miscellaneous mixture of animals
found in the quarries.
The Titanotherium. or giant beast,
IS the largest animals bones to be
found in this region. 1t is about the
size of an elephant. The most COM
mon fossil mammal in the bad lands
Of Nebraska is the oredon. an her
biyirCus animal about the size of the
domestic sheep. AS many as eight or
ten skulls of the oredOn have bben
found frequently in a space no larger
than the floor CT an ordinary room.
1t has Eee1 discovered here by
scientists that America is the home of
The rhinoccr0us, the camel, as well as
that OF the horse and many other ami
mails now tc he found only in for
eign countries or not at al. Mr.. Cook
saws that Nebraska is the home of the
rhinocerosis and their wanderings Cd
them into other parts of the world.
At Agate, their bones and skulls oc-
cur in heaps. He says they became
extipc. in Nebraska at The close of
plicCcene- haif million years ago.
The fCssi'3 collected from the bone
beds at Agate Springs Ranth are en-
tirely mammalian. Only a few of
these, however, attract general atten- (
ton, such as titanotheresk orcdon.
rhinocerQeis, horses hogs IiDvine.i
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