Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 November 1874 — Rare and Curious Fossils Found in Kansas. [ARTICLE]

Rare and Curious Fossils Found in Kansas.

Thk general attention attracted to Western geological matters by the Hayden expedition lends interest to the less extensive work of other scientific laborers in the same line. Among these minor explorers no one is doing more valuable and interesting work, I apprehend, than Prof. B. F. Mudge, who is in the employ of Yale College, engaged in collecting the rare and curious tossils of Kansas. Prof. Mudge has been in the field about six months, in which time he has forwarded over a ton of choice vertebrate specimens to the college, including’ several new species of fish, and one saurian and one pterodactyl new to science. He is aiming to collect principally from that portion of the cretaceous formation called by Meek and Hayden tbe“nebrioric limestone,” confining himself to vertebrates, the most of which are fishes, birds, reptiles, of the largest classes, and pterodactyls. ' 7 Of fishes, a great number and variety have been found, mainly of the lower types. Some are only a few inches in length, yet every scale is perfect and in its proper place. The largest are from fifteen to twenty-five feet long. Of these larger ones, the* bones, fins and a few scales only are preserved, and these are not usually found in a natural position;~Thei heavy, with long, sharp teeth, denoting a strong, carnivorous nature. Generally, some of the bones are missing, showing that after death the animal must have been torn apart and scattered by waves or by other fish; but in a few instances the outlines of entire bodies six feet long, with large plate-scales and coarse spinal fins, have been di-covcred. Sometimes the scales, three inches or more in length, are perfect, exhibiting a beautiful structure. The plates about the head are fre quently from six to twelve inches in diameter, and when first found in good preservation, but more fragile than glass, crumbling into fragments at almost the first touch. The most singular fish yet discovered is a genus whiclL_is_anned with a strong weapon on the extremity of the nose, somewhat like a sword-fish, but round and pointed, and composed of long fibers. The jaws are provided with three kinds of teeth: first (on the outer edge) a row of large, flat, cutting teeth, partly resembling those of a shark; next, some small, blunt teeth, placed irregularly; and, finally, a third set of small, sharp teeth, needle-like in shape, forming a pavement. The jaws arc also like the snout ■ The reptiles are more interesting, geologically, ami much more valuable, than the fishes. They embrace the various kinds of saurians of all sizes, from three to seventy feet in length, the most common being from twenty to thirty feet. Only the bones, and occasionally a few plates of these, have been found—scarcely ever an entire skeleton. Those portions usually discovered are vertebra*, ribs, leg or paddle bones, and teeth. Occasionally as many as seventy of the small bones of the paddle or feet belonging to one individual have been found. The teeth usually consist of a double row, Strong and large, but hollow and easily broken. The hollow portion is frequently filled with clear carbonate of lime, presenting a very pretty, semi-transparent appearance. The largest specimen which Prof. Mudge has yet procured in the saurian line is an ichthyosaurus between sixty and seventy feet in length. It was uncovered in a good state of preservation. This animal was about three times as long as our largest alligator, and must have been a formidable monster to the lesser animals of its day. All the saurians so far discovered by Prof. Mudge have a general resemblance to the alligators of the present period, hut are more slender and snake-like. The professor thinks they must have lived on the islands of the old cretaceous ocean, spending much of their time in search of their prey. Their teeth show that they were highly carnivorous. If this needed confirmation, it is found in their coprolites,which contained fragments of liones, scales and other indigestible portions of fish.

Next in interest among Prof. Mudge’s fossils are the pterodactyls. Of these he has found the bones of two specimens, both large, and one new to science. The larger one. when living (according to Prof. Marsh, of Yale, who has examined, it), measured twenty feet in width of wing. The largest found in Europe are only half that size. Some rare bones of birds have also been discovered, one species of which has the biconcave vertebra; of the fish, with a jaw containing regular reptilian teeth. Another species, much larger—standing apparently four or five feet high—has a femur measuring twelve and a half inches in length. Both of these species are aquatic. The tertiary formation of the pliocene age is found overlying the cretaceous in the extreme western part of the State. The fossils of this formation consist principally of the bones of large mammalia, wfth some huge turtles. The most common are jaws and teeth of two or three species of extinct horses. The vertebra? and teeth of a large animal resembling the rhinoceros have also been found, and in several instances the bones and portions of a tusk of a mastodon. The ivory in these remains of the mastodon was fossilized in one case in a new and singular manner. It had been changed to nearly pure silica, and in the change had become infused with fine, sprig-like ' crystals of black oxide of manganese, similar to the so-called moss agate. When cut and polished it might pass for that gem. Prdf. Mudge is still pursuing his investigations, and the collections he is making promise tc be among the most interesting and valuable in the country. — Topeka (Kan.) Cor. N. Y. World.