Excerpt from The Fossil Turtles of North America In this treatise on the Fossil Turtles of North America there are described 266 species, of which 76 are regarded as hitherto unknown to science. In the preparation of this work the writer has had access to most of the collections which contain remains of North American fossil turtles. The most important of these collections is that of the American Museum of Natural History, in New York. In this are found many of the specimens described by Professor E. D. Cope, including many of his types. In addition to these, large numbers of turtles have been brought together by the expeditions sent out by this museum during the past fifteen years. Free access has been given the writer to the materials in the United States National Museum, where there are many of the specimens described by Dr. Joseph Leidy and Professor Cope; to those of the Academy of Natural Science of Philadelphia, where are found other materials rendered precious by the labors of the authors just mentioned; to those of the Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh; the Field Natural History Museum, Chicago; the University of Kansas, Lawrence; the University of Texas, and the University of Nebraska. At Yale University the writer has been permitted to study and describe valuable materials brought together by Professor O. C. Marsh, besides other specimens which form the types of species described more recently by Dr. George R. Wieland. Thru the courtesy of Professor W. S. Valiant some of Dr. Leidy's types preserved at Rutgers College were made accessible. Specimens for study have been sent to the writer from most of the museums mentioned; also from the University of Chicago, by Mr. S. W. Williston; from the University of California, by Dr. J. C. Merriam; from the Geological Survey of Canada, by Mr. L. M. Lambe; and from the Vanderbilt University, Nashville, by Professor L. C. Glenn. It has been the author's earnest wish to see all the types of the hitherto described species; and most of these have come under his notice. Unfortunately some are without doubt utterly lost; others have, for the time, disappeared from view. The author has endeavored to illustrate as fully as possible the species described. Whatever may prove to be the little or great value of the text, the writer can commend the illustrations. By far the greater number of the figures of the plates are from photographs which were taken at the American Museum of Natural History by Mr. A. E. Anderson. Other photographs and drawings have been furnished by the Geological Survey of Canada thru Mr. L. M. Lambe; others by Dr. George R. Wieland, of the Yale University Museum; others by Dr. W. J. Holland, director of the Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh. The photographs of Basilemys sinuosa came from the Field Natural History Museum, thru Dr. E. R. Riggs. A considerable number of the drawings found in the plates were prepared many years ago, for the late Dr. George Baur, by the United States Geological Survey; thru the courtesy of the Survey these were placed in the hands of the writer. The majority of the drawings that appear in the text were executed by Mrs. Lindsay Morris Sterling, artist in the department of vertebrate paleontology in the American Museum of Natural History. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com