]
In some instances the missing parts of a skeleton are not restored,
because, even though but a small part be gone, we have no good
evidence to guide in its reconstruction. This gives an imperfect and
sometimes misleading concept of what the whole skeleton was like, but
it is better than restoring it erroneously. Usually with the more
imperfect skeletons, a skull, a limb or some other characteristic
parts may be placed on exhibition but the remainder of the specimen is
stored in the study collections.
[Illustration: Fig. 43.--American Museum party at Bone-Cabin
Quarry, 1899. Seated, left to right Walter Granger, Professor H.F.
Osborn, Dr. W.D. Matthew; standing, F. Schneider, Prof. R.S. Lull,
Albert Thomson, Peter Kaison.]
_Where They are Found._ The chief dinosaur localities in this country
are along the flanks of the Rocky Mountains and the plains to the
eastward, from Canada to Texas. Not that dinosaurs were any more
abundant there than elsewhere. They probably ranged all over North
America, and different kinds inhabited other continents as well. But
in the East and the Middle West, the conditions were not favorable for
preserving their remains, except in a few localities. Formations of
this age are less extensive, especially those of the delta and
coast-swamps which the dinosaurs frequented. And where they do occur,
they are largely covered by vegetation and cannot be explored to
advantage. In the arid Western regions these formations girdle the
Rockies and outlying mountain chains for two-thousand miles from north
to south, and are extensively exposed in great escarpments, river
canyons and "badland" areas, bare of soil and vegetation and affording
an immense stretch of exposed rock for the explorer.
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