Edward Cope's reconstruction of Laelaps aquilunguis. This work was on display in the original exhibition as item 11. Image source: Cope, Edward Drinker. "The fossil reptiles of New Jersey," in: American Naturalist, vol. 3 (1869), pp. 84-91, pl. 2.

Paper Dinosaurs 1824-1969

An Exhibition of Original Publications from the Collections of the Linda Hall Library

The Trachodon Mummy, 1917

Charles H. Sternberg and his sons--George F. and Charles M., and Levi-- comprised one of the most formidable dinosaur hunting teams that ever attacked the fossil fields of the American and Canadian West. In 1908, in Converse County, Wyoming, they unearthed one of the most renowned of dinosaur fossils, the Trachodon mummy. Dinosaur skin impressions had been found before, but this specimen had the skin almost completely preserved, along with portions of muscle, and nearly the entire skeleton. Sternberg sold the mummy to the American Museum of Natural History for a considerable sum, and it immediately went on display.

Henry Fairfield Osborn published an extensive article on the mummy in 1912 that contained photographs of the entire specimen as well as detailed enlargements of skin segments. However, for this exhibition, it seemed fitting to use Charles H. Sternberg's own book, published in 1917, which contains the same photograph, on a smaller scale, that Osborn had published earlier.

The photographer, Abram Anderson, does not seem to have received the attention of his colleague Charles Knight, but he was apparently much in demand as a visual recorder of dinosaurs; his three photographs of the first T. rex mount are also included in the exhibition, as is his photograph of the second T. rex skull (see item 34).

Trachodon mummy. This work was on display in the original exhibition as item 28. Image source: Sternberg, Charles H. Hunting Dinosaurs in the Bad Lands of the Red Deer River, Alberta, Canada. Lawrence, Kansas: Published by Charles H. Sternberg, 1917, fig. 1.

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The Skin of the Mummy, 1912

Epidermal area of the Trachodon mummy. This work is part of the Library Collections, but it is NOT on display. Image source: Osborn, Henry Fairfield. "Integument of the iguanodon dinosaur Trachodon," in: Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History, new series, vol. 1 (1912), pl. 7.

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This article by Henry F. Osborn presents the first thorough analysis of the Trachodon mummy that had been found by the Sternberg family in 1908. The article is copiously illustrated. There are three photographs of the mummy itself; one is double-page, showing the mummy at 1/9 natural size; the other two show, on one page, from two different vantage points, the mummy at 1/13 natural size. In addition, there are three full-page plates that provide details of the mummy's skin, showing the arrangement of large and small tubercles that was so different in appearance from the skin of modern reptiles. We reproduce one of these at the right.

There are two other illustrations of special interest; one shows Charles Knight's restoration of Trachodon; the other shows Osborn's own restoration, which includes the new information about the skin. 

Trachodon Twice Restored, 1912

Henry F. Osborn, in his article on the Trachodon mummy, not only showed photographs of the mummy and details of the skin, but included two restorations of Trachodon. The first, and more familiar, is a painting by Charles Knight, that depicts two Trachodon, one in the familiar bipedal position, and the other in a quadrupedal position. But, as Osborn pointed out in the text, it is a quadrupedal position with a difference, since the front limbs are in a "balancing" rather than a "sustaining" position. Knight's painting was based on a recent mount of a pair of Trachodon in the American Museum of Natural History.

The other restoration is much less familiar. It was apparently drawn by Osborn himself, and shows Trachodon, in the full bipedal position, but wearing a skin that is covered with tubercles. Osborn speculated in the paper that Trachodon may well have had a pronounced color pattern, since modern reptiles that have different size tubercles usually show considerable color variation on their skin.

Diagrammatic restoration of the body contours and epidermal markings of the Trachodon. This work is part of the Library Collections, but it is NOT on display. Image source: Osborn, Henry Fairfield. "Integument of the iguanodon dinosaur Trachodon," in: Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History, new series, vol. 1 (1912), p. 39.

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The Trachodon that Knight depicted was considered at the time to be T. mirabilis. The Trachodon mummy, and the Osborn restoration, were regarded as T. annectens.

Preliminary restoration of the Trachodon. This work is part of the Library Collections, but it is NOT on display. Image source: Osborn, Henry Fairfield. "Integument of the iguanodon dinosaur Trachodon," in: Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History, new series, vol. 1 (1912), p. 52.

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