cimen of _Trachodon_ is in the
American Museum, and beside it are two fine mounted skeletons of the
largest size. There is also on exhibition a panel mount of a nearly
related genus, _Saurolophus_ the skeleton lying as it was found in the
rock, and a fine skeleton of a third genus _Corythosaurus_ with the
skin partly preserved on both sides of the crushed and flattened body
stands beside it. In the _Tyrannosaurus_ group when completed will
appear a fourth skeleton of the _Trachodon_. Several skulls and
incomplete skeletons on exhibition and other skeletons not yet
prepared add to the Museum collection of this group. Trachodon
skeletons may also be found in the Museums of New Haven, Washington,
Frankfurt-on-the-Main, London and Paris, but nowhere a series
comparable to that displayed at the American Museum.

THE TRACHODON GROUP.

The following description of the Trachodon group is by Mr. Barnum
Brown and first appeared in the American Museum Journal for April
1908:[16]

"This group takes us back in imagination to the Cretaceous period,
more than three millions of years ago, when Trachodonts were among the
most numerous of the dinosaurs. Two members of the family are
represented here as feeding in the marshes that characterized the
period, when one is startled by the approach of a carnivorous
dinosaur, Tyrannosaurus, their enemy, and rises on tiptoe to look over
the surrounding plants and determine the direction from which it is
coming. The other Trachodon, unaware of danger, continues peacefully
to crop the foliage. Perhaps the erect member of the group had already
had unpleasant experiences with hostile beasts, for a bone of its left
foot bears three sharp gashes which were made by the teeth of some
carnivorous dinosaur.

[Illustration: Fig. 28.--Mounted Skeletons of _Trachodon_ in the
American Museum. Height of standing skeleton 16 feet, 10 inches.]

"By thus grouping the skeletons in lifelike attitudes, the relation of
the different bones can best be shown, but these of course are only
two of the attitudes commonly taken by the creatures during life.
Mechanical and anatomical considerations, especially the long straight
shafts of the leg bones, indicate that dinosaurs walked with their
limbs straight under the body, rather than in a crawling attitude with
the belly close to the ground, as is common among living reptiles.

"Trachodonts lived near the close of the Age of Reptiles in the Upper
Cretaceous an