Excerpt from Diplodocus (Marsh): Its Osteology, Taxonomy, and Probable Habits, With a Restoration of the Skeleton

Of the manv exasperating disappointments just referred to, that mentioned by Professor Osborn in the second paragraph of his introduction to the description of a skeleton of Diplodocus, published as Part V., Vol. I. Of the Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History, may be cited as a common example. He says, in speaking of the discovery of the specimen, At one time strong hopes were aroused that the entire animal would be found together. The long tail stretched off parallel with the cliff, interrupted only by a small gulley which had outthrough a small section of the caudals. In front of the sacrum the dorsals stretched forward in a promising way, but the centra were wanting, and finally nothing but the neural arches remained. Strikingly similar disappointments have attended the discovery and unearthing of at least a half dozen other skeletons of Diplodocus. Happily, however, in the preserved and recovered remains of these various skeletons different parts of the frame are represented; so that by combining all, we are enabled to study the restored skeleton almost in its entirety, though still incomplete, in at least one important character, to wit, the fore feet.

The difficulties arising from the fragmentary nature of which most remains of vertebrate fossils consist when found imbedded in the rocks, are greatly increased in the Dinosauria by the enormous size attained by the individual animals in many genera. These difficulties are especially applicable to Diplodocus and the allied genera constituting the Sauropoda, which include the remains of the largest land animals known to science. These animals frequently attain to a length of over sixty feet, and there is evidence that representatives of some of the larger genera fell but little, if any, short of one hundred feet in length. Every student of the modern Cetacea is well aware of the great difficulty encountered in undertaking a comprehensive study of the osteology of that order of mammals, due chiefly to the trouble and expense incurred, on account of their size, in bringing together, prepar ing and caring for, sufficiently complete osteological collections. In the Dinosauria these difficulties are rendered infinitely greater, So that the task of bringing together an even fairly representative collection in any one institution, even though its re sources may be considerable, is rendered exceedingly difficult, if not quite hopeless.

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