564 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



been of terrestrial habits, and Dawson frequently speaks of them as 

 " lizard-like " and his restorations of some of the forms, though based 

 on very scanty remains, indicate forms which would be taken for modern 

 lizards. While his restorations are in part fanciful, he has given, in 

 the main, an accurate idea of the animals as indicated by the remains 

 preserved in the old stumps of the swamp in which the animals lived. 



Cope's researches into the structure of the early quadrupeds con- 

 stitute an interesting chapter in the history of the early vertebrates. 

 His researches on the extinct Amphibia began in 1865 by the publica- 

 tion of the description of the form' known as Amphibamus grandiceps, 

 from the Mazon creek beds of Illinois. This specimen was loaned to 

 the Illinois Geological Survey for Professor Cope to study by Mr. 

 Joseph Even of Morris, Illinois. After Cope's description of the form, 

 the specimen was returned to Mr. Even and, as Mr. L. E. Daniels tells 

 me, it was later destroyed by fire. Mr. Daniels has recently been 

 kind enough to allow me to study a specimen of this form in his 

 collection, the only one, so far as I am aware, now in existence (Fig. 3). 

 The peculiar characters of this form are the possession of sclerotic 

 plates in the eyes and the possession of long curved ribs which have 

 been recently described by Dr. Hay from this same specimen. A speci- 

 men of another species from his same deposit has been in the Gurley 

 collection for nearly thirty years. Dr. Newberry saw it when he s'udied 

 Mr. Gurley's fishes and said in a note that Professor Cope should see it. 

 It was never sent to Cope, however, and it is described elsewhere by the 

 writer as Micrerpeton caudatum. gen. et sp. nov. This is a very in- 

 teresting form, since it shows the impression of the fleshy tail (Fig. 4). 

 On this tail impression are preserved many important structures here- 

 tofore unknown for the Branchiosauria to which the form belongs. As 

 such it represents not only the earliest geological evidence of the group, 

 but it is the first appearance of the Branchiosauria in the discoveries 

 in the early quadrupeds in North America. It is a typical branchio- 

 saurian and as such belongs to the family in which the Branchiosaurus 

 of Europe is placed. 



Between the years 18G5 and 1897 Cope continued his investigations 

 on the early quadrupeds and his results are to be found in the proceed- 

 ings of several learned societies. He early recognized the unusual 

 characters of the Carboniferous fauna, and his many papers attest his 

 interest in the forms which constitute it. He has described all but two 

 of the known Carboniferous species from the deposits of the Unit* d 

 States. Among the many peculiar types of amphibians described by 

 Cope none is more bizarre than the form from the Permian of Texas 

 known as Diplocaidus magnicornis Cope. This peculiar form has been 

 widely described and commented on. Its affinities are clearly with the 

 Microsauria, and it is one of the latest representatives of that group 



