1961-1962 - American Museum of Natural History

ert devoted most of his time, included the continuation of a
large monograph on the Triassic dinosaurs of North America,
research on the Triassic reptiles of Brazil, and new studies on
Triassic reptiles that have been recently collected in New Jersey.
Each of these projects bears on the larger problem of the
evolution and intercontinental relationships of Triassic tetrapods.
As part of his long-term work on this problem, Dr. Colbert
began an extended field trip this year to Israel, South
Africa, and Europe where he will study Triassic stratigraphy,
collect fossils, and examine specimens in museum laboratories.
The Mesozoic fish faunas of the world were the subject of
continuing study by Dr. Bobb Schaeffer. Considerable progress
was made in his extensive analysis of the paleoecology, paleogeography,
and evolution of these fishes, and a paper based on
his study of the fishes from the continental Triassic beds of the
western United States is now in preparation. In the summer of
1961, Dr. Schaeffer spent eight weeks examining collections of
Mesozoic fishes in Italy, Austria, Germany, and Great Britain
and made field studies at several locations in these countries.
At the same time, as part of his research on fossil fishes, an
expedition under the joint sponsorship of this Museum and the
National Museum of Canada made a unique and valuable collection
of Triassic sharks, coelacanths, and early ray-fin fishes
at a remote mountain site in British Columbia. These specimens,
which Dr. Schaeffer will describe following additional collecting
in the summer of 1962, show interesting affinities with faunas
of the same age from Greenland, Spitzbergen, and Madagascar.
The third major area of research in the department is concerned
witi very primitive mammals, particularly those of
North America. Dr. Malcolm C. McKenna, in devoting his attention
to these faunas, continued a comparative study of the
cranial anatomy and the classification of the fossil and recent
insectivores and their allies. A collecting expedition led by Dr.
McKenna to the Cretaceous and early Tertiary beds of Colorado
screened some 170 tons of rock during the summer of 1961.
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