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Show An American Camel I 1 WHAT AMHERST EXPLORERS DI3-CO DI3-CO EREO IN FOSSIL BEDS. Wei it a Tiny Creature Like a Cvrtel, and Alto the -Skull of Long Extinct Pip. Are Dug Up. Ii was a profitable summer which ir. Amherst college professor aud four students have spent mining In Wyoming Wyom-ing and Nebraska. When they finished work they loaded Into a freight car some largo pieces of rough rock and many boxes carefully packed. There wasn't an ounco of gold or silver sil-ver ore In the outfit, but the col-leglans col-leglans wouldn't havo traded Ihclr clean-up for an equal weight of nuggets. nug-gets. They didn't go to Wyomlug for metal. They were after holies and fossils and they struck It rich. Tho enr contained fossil remains and bones which prove tho existence In tho southwest centuries and centuries ago of nt leaBt three specloa of animals closely related to the tnmol of our day. A perfect skoleton of one of these, with tho bones nil articulated. Is tho prlzo find of tho expedition, and In addition the trophlos Include many other camel bones nnd skulls, tho skull of n pig whoso family has bo como extinct In America, the skeleton of a big wolf-llko animal, thousands of teeth of horses, camels, rhinoceroses, dog nnd deer which lived back In Pliocene Plio-cene times, nnd a lot of flint Instruments Instru-ments made by Indians at least 300 years ago. All theso opcclmcna will bo boI up In (ho now Amhorst museum to be used In the development of a series of evolutionary groups. To say that Amheist men aro proud of tho discoveries Is putting it mildly. Prof. F. 11. Loomls headed tho exploration ex-ploration party. The first find camo on Spanish creek, where they discovered discov-ered an almost complete skeleton of an oredont, a small animal somewhat similar In form to a pig but having the back teoth of a sheep, showing that It hod the habit of grinding Its food, which apparently consisted largely large-ly of grass. Thero woro many fragments frag-ments of similar skeletons found in the vicinity, Indicating a herd of tho animals. Threo other skulls' were packed away before tho party moved along to Haw Hldo creek. Here the result was very different. Tho animal which formerly Inhabited the rocks was a Jong-nocked, long-legged long-legged member of the camel tribe (Oxydactylus). Flvo parts of skeletons skele-tons were found, two of thorn almost complete, and the skull of a new pig was disclosed. A drive of CO miles across the Nebraska line to tho Niobrara river brought tho explorers to the scene of their most Important fltids. This ills- trlet. hear Agnte. Nel Is celebrated for the dlscovm-les that havo been mado. thro. Work for the Carneglo museum in the Inst few years has brought-to light 2C0 skulls of extinct rhlnp'ccfoses,- together with some- of tho hones, and tho University of Nebraska Ne-braska has established quarries near by which aro beginning to elvo rich returns. Tho Amherst party bad to trust to luck In some of the unworked ' territory, and luck favored them. At tho base of a bluff a spot was found .which contained many bones of a tiny camel. The lend was followed up tho hill to the level whence they came, and on tho surface CO small Where the Bones of Camel Were Dug Out. anklu bones were found, Indicating 30 animals, Two excavations wcro mndc, and on the first day six skulls wcro uncovered. uncov-ered. After that the finds averaged ono a day until a total of IS was reached. Tho skeleton of a big wolf, like cnrnlvor, Amphlcyou, was also found among the smaller bones, and other workings woro developed, which although not so rich In numbers .produced .pro-duced more complete skeletons, Tho climax camo with tho discovery of a beautiful, complete skeleton. All the bones ol this wora articulated, appearing ap-pearing as II tho creature had dropped and hod novo been disturbed. It never will bo disturbed, either. The wholo skeleton with tho surrounding matrix was taken up In n block nnd will be mounted as a slqb without removing tho bones. The preparation of this took six weeks, und during that tlmo two disjointed skeletons-and a number num-ber of skulls wore taken up. |
