1928
  • Gifts. From A. W. Dickinson, Gen. Supt. Union Pacific Coal Co., Rock Springs, WY Fossil tracks (dinosaur?) from Superior Coal Mine (Mesa Verde Fm.) and D Mine. 2 skeletons of South African Permian reptiles, were obtained (exchange?, sale?). Expeditions. On Feb. 8th Mr. Carl Sorensen went to St. Petersburg, Fl. Where he worked with Mr. Walter E. Holmes in the exploration of caves near Lecanto, Dunellan, etc. Mr. Sorensen returned to the museum Mar. 13th. Mr. Walter Granger and Albert Thomson left the museum on route to join the C. A. E., sailing from San Francisco March 2nd. They report a successful season with important additional fossil mammals, including a new genus of Titanothere, Embolotherium, and an unusual type of mastodon, Amebelodon. Miss Rachel A. Husband (later Mrs. Nichols) went to Bear Creek MT on May 15th. The fossils occur in a thin bed of shale overlying coal vein No. 3 of the Eagle Mine, one mile S of Bear Creek. The matrix was taken from the roof of the mine, soaked in water to hasten disintegration, then searched for fossil material. She secured many additional jaws and teeth of primates and insectivores. She returned on Sept. 4th. The American Museum in cooperation with the Colorado Museum of Natural History sent an expedition to complete the work at Folsom. The party under the direction of Barnum Brown, was in charge of P. C. Kaisen, who left the museum on June 1st, and included Ernest Kaisen, Glen Streeter, who left the museum on May 15th, Carl Schwachheim and G. K. Laves. A quarry 60X60 was excavated, and exhausted. Several associated skeletons, partial skeletons and many bones of the extinct buffalo, Bison taylori and a few bones of 5 other smaller Mammals were taken out of this quarry, 37 boxes in all. Eleven arrow points were found in association with the bison bones this year, one of which was perfect. This makes 16 arrows in all recovered during 3 years work. In a lava cave 8 mi. from this quarry a mixed fauna, recent and Pleistocene was discovered, thought to be contemporaneous with Bison taylori. This material includes sloth and camel. During the season, Barnum Brown, who left the museum June 17th visited the extinct crater in SE New Mexico where Yale Univ.'s Nothrotherium skeleton with integument was discovered. Rights to work this crater was secured by Yale and the National Museum. He then investigated the Imperator skeleton in Sonora, Mexico. The specimen was complete when discovered by destroyed by the discoverer. Brown made a second trip west where 3 important discoveries were made near Grand Junction, CO; a mammal horizon with Pantolambda teeth, a Cretaceous trachodont dinosaur and a Jurassic dinosaur prospect indicating a skeleton of ?Brachiosaurus. Mr. Childs Frick's expeditions to Arizona, New Mexico and Nebraska secured a wealth of camel material. Mr. H. E. Anthony was in Honduras.
19271929