Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, Vol. 27 PDF Download

Author: William K. Gregory
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781331941330
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 542

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Book Description
Excerpt from Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, Vol. 27: The Orders of Mammals In 1904 Professor Henry Fairfield Osborn requested his assistant, the present writer, to prepare a brief outline of the history of the ordinal classification of the mammals for use in the Columbia University course on the Evolution of the Mammalia. The preliminary sketch having raised so many interesting problems relating to important principles, Professor Osborn suggested the continuation of the work and very generously assumed the chief expense of the investigation. Part II, dealing with the genetic relations of the mammalian orders, was begun in 1907 and has been carried on through the generosity of Professor Osborn and of Charles Gregory, Esq., to whom the author's cordial acknowledgments are hereby tendered. Part I of the present work is offered not as an exhaustive history of the subject but as a series of stages in the history of the ordinal classification of the mammals, i. e., as an outline with sufficient details to make clear the more important steps. The main interest of the writer has been centered, however, not so much upon the history as upon the actual problem of ordinal classification, which involves the theme discussed in Part II, namely, the evolution and genetic interrelations of the mammalian orders. This problem in its manifold aspects has long engaged the attention of the writer, especially in connection with his duties as assistant and lecturer in the above mentioned university course on recent and fossil mammals conducted by Professor Osborn. It also continually recurs at the American Museum of Natural History, where during the last decade the writer has had the privilege of working in the midst of a wonderful collection of fossil vertebrates and of assisting the curator, Professor Osborn, in the monographic revision of the Titanotheres, in the work on the 'Evolution of the Mammalian Molar Teeth' and in many minor studies. The preparation, for the Osborn Library of Vertebrate Palaeontology in the same Museum, of a subject-index including some thousands of titles bearing on phylogenv, led into the literature of the subject; while many stimulating discussions with Dr. W. D. Matthew, as well as frequent reference to his numerous palaeontological contributions, have placed the writer under the most lasting obligation. Observations relating to the present work were also made in various other museums, especially the British Museum (Natural History), the Field Museum of Natural History, and the United States National Museum, where the officials extended every courtesy. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."