PAGE 4
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
Wednesday, October 19, 1949
Elias Plays Detective
On Cuttlefish Puzzle
BY GERALD MATZKE ,
An important contribution to !
the world of science-was made re
cently by a University of Ne- !
braska scientist all because he ;
had imagination, patience and the ;
capacity for long hours of work.
He is Dr. Maxim K. Elias, a j
paleontologist, who is the first to j
prove thaat the giant cuttlefish ,
a distant cousin 01 ine mum-m
octiipus lived in North America
during prehistoric ages.
His discovery was the result of
an outstanding and interesting
piece of scientific detective work.
Here's the story.
Questions Identity
In the September, 1948, issue of
the "Journal of Paleontology," a
paper published by two profes
sors of an eastern university iden
tified a fragment of a phehistoric
fossil found in Kansas as a crus
toze alga, a minature type of sea
weed which forms a crust on
rocks. Dr. Elias was not con
vinced by the identification.
While in the East in November
of 1948, Dr. Elias found another
scientist who. like himself, be
lieved the fossil to be something
other than an alga.
Dr. Elias' skepticism was fur
ther heightened by the fact that
in 1934 a number of Washington
paleontologists had identified a
fragment of the same fossil found
by George Sternberg, curator of
the Museum of Paleontology at
the Fort Hayes State Teachers
College in Kansas, as a fragment
of a coral reef.
Careful Examination
Determined to find out just
what this puzzling fossil really
was, Dr. Elias secured the largest
piece of the fossil in existence
from Mr. Sternberg. He then be
gan the careful exacting exam
ination of the note-book size fos
sil which was to lead to its iden
tification. The first clue to the identity of
the pale-brown, rock-like fossil
was its apparent bilateral sym
metry which suggested a backbone-like
structure. This fact
proved that the fossil was not of
coral or algal nature. For it
takes thousands of these very
small alga plants or coral animals
to fill an ordinary cup. Due to
the bilateral symmetry (lil.e that
possessed by man) of this backbone-like
structure Dr. Elias felt
positive that it was the -fossil of
i some larger animal capaoie ui
moving rapidly.
Procedure Change
When comparison with known
fossils failed to reveal the true
identity of the fossil, Dr. Elias
had to change his procedure and
resort to the process of elimina
tion. After exhausting every
possibility save one, he was close
to either success or failure. The
one remaining possibility was the
cuttlefish about which very little
was known.
More Eesearch
By conducting parallel research
on 'the present day cuttlefish
(sometimes called a sepia or
squid) Dr. Elias was able to prove
by actual microscopic comparison
that the fossil was originally a
cuttlefish that lived in the great
lake that covered Nebraska and
Kansas about 100,000,000 years
This is the first time it has
been proven that a giant cuttle
fish lived in the ancient lake that
once covered the middle section
of North America. And this par
ticular cuttlefish is the largest
known to have lived anywhere in
the world.
And so, a two-decade old mys
tery of the cuttlefish fossil was
solved by "chief detective" Dr.
Maxim K. Elias of the University
of Nebraska.
Touchc!
Colorado Women's College has
a new fencing instructor, Jon
Gusik has deserted the coaching
of film stars for C.W.C.
ANDY
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