4
THE SUNDAY OBEGONTAN. PORTLAND, AUGUST 27, 1923
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Scientist Tells of Discovery of Birth'
place From Which Reptiles and
Mammals Spread Over Globe
Insectivora, Cheiroptera,
Tillodontia, RodenfraruXeniodbtttS
Primates,
rissodactyla,
Under Prof. -Osborn's Direction Drawn by Elizabeth X. Fulda After
Charles R. Knight and Erwin Christman.
American carnivorons dinosaurs discovered in Mongolia The
"Tyranhosaaras" faces a group of ostrich dinosaurs. Fossil-
beds near the salt marsh of Iren Dabusu contain animals of
related carnivorous types.
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Archaeoceti
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Route of third Asiatic expedition from Pekin. Numerals in the Gobi desert
region mark discoveries: (1) Upper cretaceous dinosaurs; (2) eocene
mammals; (3) lower miocene mammals.
, Fowil discoveries of the utmost importance
from a scientific standpoint were reported from
Chin recently in news dispatches. Jn the accom
panying a-rtia The Sunday Oregonian presents a
naorft dotailed account of these discoveries. For
both tho article and -illustrations this newspaper
is indebted to Asia, the American magazine of
the orient.
BY HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN.
ALMOST at the outset a very impor
tant discovery has been made by
the third Asiatic expedition of the
American Museum of Natural History in
co-operation with the -American Asiatic
association and Asia. This discovery gives
the answer to one of the four great ques
tions which the expedition undertook to
solve; namely, whether ancient Asia is
the mother o the life-of Europe to the
far west, of North America -to the far
east. It is a kind of realization of the
discovery of a paleontologic Garden of
of Eden of the birthplace or Asiatic
homeland from which many kinds of rep
tiles and mammals spread westward and
eastward. The existence of such a center
has long been a matter of pure theory
on the part of paleontologists. As early
as 1SM)0 the writer of this article summed
up his faith in the existence of such an
Asiatic homeland, in the columns of
Science, April. 13, 1900, page 567, in a
prophecy which may be paraphrased as
follows :
We now turn to the northern hemi
sphere, to the Arctogaea or homeland
area of animal dispersal in the dawn
period of the mammalian life on the soil
of the northern hemisphere: First, on
opposite sides of the globe we observe
two great colonies, one in Europe and one
in the Rocky mountain region of Amer
ica, which are full of different decrees of
kindred in their mammalian life; yet they
are separated by 10,000 miles of inter
vening land in which not a single similar
form is found.
The fact that the same kinds of mam
mals and reptiles appear simultaneously
in Europe and in the Rocky -mountain
region has long been considered strong
evidence for the hypothesis that "the dis
persal center is half-way between." In
this dispersal center, during the close of
the age of reptiles and the beginning of
the age of mammals, there evolved the
most remote ancestors of. all the higher
kinds of mammalian life which exist to
oay, including, for example, the five
toed horses, which have not as yet been
discovered in either Europe or, America.
That the very earliest horses known in
either Europe or America are four-toed,
Indicates that their ancestors may have
lost their fifth toe while still resident in
the Asiatic homeland. The history of
northern Asia remains unknown until the
period of the ice age, when man first ap
pears; yet theoretically we are certain
that it was part of a board migration and
dispersal belt which at one time linked
together the colonies of France and Great
Britain with those of the Rocky mountain
region of Wyoming and Colorado. Though
the kinds of animals which we find in
these two far-distant colonies are es
sentially similar and every year's dis
covery increases the resemblance and
diminishes the difference betwen the life
of Europe and the life of the Rocky
mountain region, connecting links are en
tirely unknown. It follows that northern
Asia must be the unknown migration
route between these two far-distant
colonies. , .
All this Was set forth in 1900. It was
written with such confidence in the re
sults of future explorations that all these
various kinds of mammals were actually
written down upon a chart, of which the
readers of Asia will enjoy seeing a dupli
cate as a matter of scientific record. If
the reader will observe closely the map
on page 722, he will see that the home
of the anthropoid apes is placed in south
ern Asia, in India note the word An
thropoidea; but that the home of the
more remote ancestors of -man, Primates,
is placed in northern Asia, where our ex
pedition is now at work Observe that
tour kinds of quadrupeds are placed in
Africa, especially the elephant-mastodon
family, or Proboscidea; and, as a most
interesting verification of this kind of
scientific prediction, the ancestors of the
elephant family were actually discovered
in northern Africa by the geological sur
vey of Egypt, in 1902. But we- have
waited until 1922 to verify the prediction
of the paleontologists as to the homeland
life of northern Asia. This verification
has come with unexpected suddenness
and with a completeness beyond our
fondest hopes, and there still remain four
j ears in which the grsat expedition, un
der Roy Chapman Andrews, will fill out
the details.
Professor Charles P. Berkey Tells of
Early Spring In Mongolia.
"We have been out a month today and
have covered 668 miles of reconnaissance.
Now we are camped on the Bokuk Gol
about 20 miles southwest of Urga. This
is a great camp tonight our 75 camels
came in (caught up) tonight." These
with our five motors and 26 men and
seven tents make quite an . imposing
group on' the Bokuk Gol valley side. It
ia very cold, and, with these heavy winds,
it Is very trying, but we have managed
tc work every day either in the field or
on the road or on the notes. It was 17
degrees Fahrenheit this morning and we'
, have had three snow storms within ten
days. I am writing in a tent where I
am writing in a tent where I am pro
tected from the wind, but it is necessary
to keep bundled up as if it were real win
ter with leather vests, fur-lined coats
and gloves and winter caps. I haven't
had my heavy cap off, except the few
times that I tried to wash my face, either
day, or night for ten days. We have come
north fast and 'have, at the - same time, -
American Museum of Natural History.
Fossil-pit that yielded the skull of an
ancestral elephant. The natives have
long sold to Chinese pharmacists fos
sils from pits like this one at Shihpatze
on the Yangtze, where V alter Gran
ger's men found the stegodon skull.
climbed to an elevation of about 6000
feet; so perhaps we . got ahead of the
spring season. Fruit trees were in blos
som when we left Pekin a month ago.
"But we are having a mighty good,
time. This rough life is a great recrea
tion for me and it is agreeing with me
in every way. My sleeping bag is one of
the Peary stock that did service on north
pole work; so when I get too cold, I go to
bed. It is always comfortable. .
"Our reconnaissance work is progres
sing very satisfactorily better, indeed,
than we had a right to expect to .this
point I take an aneroid reading every
mile, and as much oftener as seems to be
necessary, and sketch in the geologic
structure in cross section. I now have a
geologic section of 636 miles stretching
entirely across the tiobi desert. We have
found the . country very different from
what we were led to expect. Instead of
being lost in the sand, we have found our
selves traveling on complex rock struc
ture and across sedimentary basins of
just the sort that we hoped' to find. We
have seldom had to go more than two or
three miles in any doubt about our under
ground conditions. It has been great
fup. As you know. I have a great liking
for reconnaissance work and especially
for - structural interpretation. This has
been an exceptional section and given all
the problems any one could wish for. We
have passed from ancient Precambrian
rock of the most metamorphic history to
comparatively recent beds of simple
origin at least 15 times since leaving Kal
gan. We have had faultings and warp
ings, domes and basins,, galore. In. addi
tion, igneous exhibits of almost every
kind from old. eroded, deep-seated gran
ite bosses that now stand up in mountain
form to little volcanic vents so recent that
one can pick up scoria and bread crust
bombs and cindery fragments, that clog
them. .
"The next stop is to be 300 miles west.
There will be some delay in . Pekin be
cause Dr. Henry Fairfield Osborn is to be
there when we return, and we shall have
to review our results with him and help
plan out the work of the succeeding three
or four years. I want to see the Ameri
can museum take up real geological in
vestigation in connection with some of
the problems that come up in the course
of the season, and the work I undertook
will not be completed till that is care
fully planned and organized. Then with
the reconnaissance report perhaps my
work on it will be ended." .'
Roy Chapman Andrews Reports the
Discovery. . .
Mr. Andrews' letter of May 9, from
Urga, is sd dramatic that we may quote
from it, with slight changes in phrasing:
"We left Kalgan on April 21. We got
all the motorcars over the pass between
China and Mongolia with -no difficulty,,
although the pass has seldom been in
worse condition. -We ran for 250 miles,
for the geologists were able to under
stand the main features rather easily.
They began to make close observations
at Kalgan, on the Chinese side, and car
ried their work right across the pass, de
scribing and photographing every foot of
the way. When we were half-way across
Mongolia (between Kalgan and Urga).
our attention was attracted by some in
teresting geologic exposures, and we
stopped for camp. While we were pre
paring supper, Granger, Berkey and Mor-.
ris (the three geologists of the party)
began - prospecting, and within-a1-few :
i
ins -tis
1
-Under i-rof
Osborn's Direc and Erwin Christman. uldsi after
tion Drawn .by Elizabeth N. F
. hai'ies li. Knight
American herbivorous dinosaurs discovered in Mongolia. Spoonbill, or Igua
nodont dinosaurs of the herbivorous type found in the Iren Dabusu fossil
bearing beds once ranged from southern England to the New Jersey coast.
yards of camp discovered some bones of
dinosaurs. (This is the first discovery of
giant reptiles, known as dinosaurs, in
northern Asia.) The region promised to
be so interesting that I left the geologists
and Persenlu (a French mechanic) with
all the food we had and pressed on
with Colgate, our motor-car operator,
and our photographers, Mr. Shackelford
and Mrs. Andrews, toward Turin, 152
miles south of Urga, where we had
planned to find our caravan.
"We reached Turin without a single
accident and, as we approached the. out
skirts of this Mongolian town we saw
a large caravan and decided to camp.
Then I. suddenly recognized the American
flag and realized that it' was the caravan
of the American museum expedition. . It
' had been five weeks on the way from
Kalgan and had just arrived one hour
before us. Pretty fine connection for a
'00-mile journey across the plains, was
it not? We went over to the great rocky
outcrop and pitched our tents. The cara
van followed and reached our encamp
ment one hour later. It was an inspir
ing sight as the 75 camels wound up
from the plain with the American flag at
the head. It made me realize, as nothing
else had, that the third Asiatic expedition
was really an accomplished fact; that all
the long days and months of preparation
in New York had resulted in this: it was
. a dream come true. Shackelford record
' ed in motion pictures the approach of
the caravan from the moment the camels
entered the rocky pass until they lined
up in three long rows and kaeeled to
have their loads removed.
"Tha expedition corps is working per
fectly. All the men are keen an enthusi
astic, and the division into three units
makes us all independent of one another,
so far as work is concerned, whenever it
is desirable. The motor cars are giving
excellent service. The two trucks are far
beyond our expectations, thanks to young
Colgate's painstaking work on them in
Peking.
"After spending three days in Turin,
we came on to Urga, the capital of Mon
golia, leaving the caravan at the camp.
We struck a heavy snow storm but got
through all right. We had been in .Urga
only a few days when a message from
Walter Granger (fossil-hunter-in-chief)
was brought to me, saying that the fossil
locality near Turin had proved of im
mense importance. The dinosaurs were
found to belong to the upper cretaceous
periods the very close of the age of rep
tiles, and to be very similar in character
to those of the' Rocky Mountain region.
On top of the dinosaur beds were discov
ered mammalian fossils belonging to the
dawn period of mammalian life, the
Eocene. Above this again were found
fossils, belonging to the lower Miocene,
the middle period of mammalian life.
Mingled with these were found , remains
of a giant mammal not found in either
Europe or North America, but discovered
seme years ago in Baluchistan, south
western India, and consequently known
as Baluchitherium. This is the largest
land mammal ever discovered."
We are thus able to announce from the
third Asiatic expedition, under date of
May 3, 1922, that strata of the closing
age of reptiles overlain by two fossil
bearing strata of the earlier age of
lrammals have been discovered in the
Gobi region of southeastern Mongolia.
These are the first beds of this geologic
age discovered in the northern part of
the continent of Asia.
The best dinosaur-bearing beds of the
upper division of the age of reptiles are
in the vicinity of the small salt marsh,
Iren Babusu, where a total thickness of
about 150 feet of nearly horizontal strata
is to be found. In these dinosaur-bearing
beds there are at least two fossil
bone-bearing levels in which the animals
bear unmistakable resemblance to those
found in the Rocky Mountain region of
Wyoming, including two kinds of flesh
eating dinosaurs, remotely related to the
famous Tyrannosaurus of the American
museum; also to a 'smaller running dino
saur similar to the ostrich dinosaur
(Struthiominius) found in Wyoming and
Montana. Mingled with these remains
are dinosaurs kffOwn as the Iguanodonts
(also abundantly represented in the beds
of Montana and Wyoming), tall, two
legged herbivorous animals which ranged
lrom southern England to the New Jersey
coast of America. It is possible that
these reptiles crossed via a north Atlantic
land-bridge, but there Is strong evidence
against the existence of any kind of
Atlantic land-bridge, such as the mythical
Atlantis, during the age of mammals.
The list also includes remains of croco
diles and of turtles, the affinities of
which have not been determined. It is
also discovered that the Gobi formation,
a term applied by the Russian geologist,
Obretcheff, is really a series of fossil
bearing beds, and not a single formation.
In the age of mammals two new series
of beds are discovered, one of more re
cent and one of more remote geologic
age. It is in the formed, named by our
party the "Houldjin" beds, that there
was found the enormous land mammal,
probably related to a member of the odd
toed ungulates and possibly related to or
identical with Baluchitherium, discov
ered by Forster Cooper in the fossil beds
of Baluchistan, southern India. Also
there are remains of fossil rhinoceroses,
of large carnivores and of land tortoises
of large size. .
Still more important, because so close
ly linked with the Rocky Mountains, is
the much older' Irdin- Manha formation
belonging to the dawn period of the age
of mammals and lying right on top of
the age of reptile beds. Here the keen
eyes of Walter Granger, who has had 25
years' .experience in the Rocky Mountain
region, discovered the abundant remains
of several kinds of small-hoofed mam
mals, closely similar to those found in
the Rocky Mountain region near Fort
Bridger, southwestern Wyoming. These
animals are known as lophiodonts from
their crested teeth. There are also re
trains of another family of odd-toed ani
mals known as titanotheres, which were
discovered by the American paleontolo- '
gist, Joseph Leidy, in the Rocky Moun
tain region1 56 years ago; - also small,
Hypothetical centers of mammal ra
diation, tertiary period. Henry Fair
field Osborn published this chart in
1900 to set forth the theory that north
ern Asia is the fossil homeland, con
taining all connecting forms of men
malian life.
even-toed animals, ancestors ot tile
ruminants.
These several discoveries are of epoch
making importance. The animals al
:eady found render .it certain that w
shall find more, that the discovery of an
cestral four or five-toed horses, tapirs
and rhinoceroses is simply a question of
broader and more intensive exploration.
As described in the introduction of this
paper, the discoveries already made of
iossil reptiles and of fossil mammal3 of
close European and of American relation
ship directly in the heart of Asia, consti
tute the fulfilment of one of the great ob
jects of the expedition, namely, the estab
lishment of the life-linking region be
tween Europe and North America ds
coveries most auspicious and encourag
iiig. The splendid organization of the
party, both in men and equipment,
thanks to the liberality of its American
sponsors and the irfspiring leadershiD of
Roy Chapman Andrews, encourages us in
the hope that another of the main objects
of the expedition will be realized, namely,
that further light on the early history of
man will also be forthcoming.
Strange Superstitions About Weddings.
Marriage being an ancient institution
which vitally affects lives of men and
women, it is not surprising that practi
cally everything connected therewith has
some superstitious belief or other asso
ciated with it. The majority of people
believe that particular incidents, colors,
days, flowers, etc., determine absolutely
the weal or woe of the parties to a mar
riage. They avoid suposedly unlucky
days for their weddings. They take pains
to arrange everything so as to assure con
jugal happiness and they worry them
selves nearly to death if anything in con
nection with the ceremony takes an un
propitious turn.
If a bride marks her linen with tne
initials of her betrothed it is commonly
believed that she will never have occasion
to use it as his wife. It is regarded as
very unlucky if her fiance sees her wear
ing any part of her trousseau before the
day, or even the hour, set for the wedding
ceremony. Only bad luck can be ex
pected, many believe, if the bride makes
her own wedding dress or if the making
of the dress is begun before the day is
named for the wedding.
Superstitious brides usually avoid vel
vet as a material for their wedding
dresses, believing that it would be certain
to bring them bad luck. Satin is fa
vored because it is believed to assure
good fortune. If one holds- a wedding
dress in the hands for five minutes and
makes a wish the wish will "come true,"
many believe.
Brides are ' happy if the first flower
they behold on their wedding day is white
and unhappy if it is red; the white flow
er is supposed to augur happiness and the
red unhappiness and care during the mar
ried life. If flowers are worn in the
bride's hair, uncovered by a veil, she will
be sorry she married. To leave her bou
quet in the church and then turn back
for it is considered equally portentous.
The girl who finds or snatches a flow
er from a bride's bouquet may expect au
early marriage, while the one who dons a
bridal veil or wreath in a spirit of fun
will be an old maid, according to a popu
lar belief. If the bridegroom appears
with his tie awry it is a "sign" that he
loves another girl and if a raveling is
found on his clothes the supposition Is
that another woman loves him.
Many are convinced that the bride
should not bake the wedding cake her
self if she desires to avoid bad luck. She
can be sure of good luck, they say. If sfie
cuts the first slice of the cake. Any acci
dent to the cake gives warning that the
bride will experience sorrow in her early
married life. If an unmarried girl car
ries a piece of wedding cake in her pocket
during the honeymoon she will become a
bride before the dress is worn out, 'tis
said.