FOSSIL FISHES IN THE COLLECTION OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. By Charles R. Eastman. Of the American Museum, of Natural History, New York City. INTRODUCTION. The collection of fossil fishes belonging to the United States National Museum, although not extensive, is a representative series, comprismg characteristic species from aU of the main geological time divisions from the Ordovician onward, and including about 170 type-specimens and other important material which has served in the description of species or determination of geological horizons. The greater part of the material was obtained under the auspices of the United States geological surveys and exploring expeditions, and a large quantity of fish remams was added to the collection through the acquisition of a number of miportant private collections, like those of Lesquereux, Lacoe, Sherwood, and others. Some foreign material, from various horizons, but chiefly Mesozoic and Tertiary, was acquired at different times by exchange or purchase. Prior to the installation of the collection of fossil vertebrates m the new building of the United States National Museum the fishes had not been systematically studied, nor even fully accessible nor arranged, owing to lack of space accommodations; and until eight years ago no published list had been prepared of the important type-specimens it contains. In 1905, under the direction of Dr. George P. Merrill, a catalogue of the type specimens of fossil invertebrates, by Charles Schuchert and associates, was published by the museum, and two years later this was foUowed by a second part, includmg the type specimens of fossil vertebrates and fossil plants. ^ The second part of this Catalogue records a wealth of material upon which Leidy, Cope, and Marsh founded much of their early work in vertebrate paleon-tology. 1 Catalogue of the type and figured specimens of Fossils, Minerals, Rocks and Ores, etc. Part 2. Fossil Vertebrates, Fossil Plants, etc. Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 53, pt. 2, 1907. PROCEEDINGS U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM, VOL. 52-NO. 2177. 235
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