Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 67.djvu/569

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There is naturally a strong feeling in the far west that some of these remarkable fossils should be kept nearer home and not continually be the subject of eastern enterprise. Accordingly, the University of Wyoming, situated at Laramie, under the active leadership of the late Professor Wilbur C. Knight, for many years sent out expeditions, chiefly into various parts of the great state of Wyoming. These also were highly successful in securing remains of the amphibious dinosaurs, also of the great long-necked marine reptiles of the order Plesiosauria. To one specimen of the latter type, distinguished by a swimming paddle 7 feet 4 inches in length, Professor Knight gave the name of Megalneusaurus rex. Unfortunately we have to record the death of this ardent naturalist and indefatigable explorer, who made up in energy and personal hard work what the university lacked in financial resources.

We have to add also the University of California to the ranks of exploring institutions. Professor James Perrin Smith and Professor J. C. Merriam explored in 1895 and 1901, 1902, 1903 the bottom of an ancient inlet of the sea, of triassic age, in which are deposited the remains of very peculiar types of ichthyosaurs. These have been described by 1 Professor Merriam, who has appropriately given them the name Shastosaurus, in reference to the proximity of the beds in which they occur to Mt. Shasta. These reptiles are in general distinguished from the plesiosaurs by the dolphin like form of the body and the