IO THE COAL MEASURES AMPHIBIA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



Cricotus gibsonii Cope, Diplocaulus salamandroides Cope. The remains are very 

 fragmentary, and consist for the most part of incomplete vertebrae, with a few small 

 skull fragments. 



(b} In 1897 Dr. Williston (607) described some fragments of Cricotus from a 

 deposit in Cowley County, near Winfield, Kansas. There has been some dispute as 

 to the age of the deposit, but the consensus of opinion seems to be that the beds are 

 of approximately the same age as those of Illinois and Pennsylvania in which similar 

 remains are found, and those deposits are looked upon as Upper Pennsylvania 

 (Case (94), pp. 239-240). No new forms were described from Winfield, since only a 

 few fragments were obtained. Williston referred the phalange, the fragment of a 

 jaw, and the tooth to Cricotus heteroclitus Cope. 



(c) Later in the same year Williston (608) announced the discovery of a tooth 

 of typical labyrinthodont structure from near Louisville, Kansas (plate 21, fig. 6). 

 The tooth was accompanied by fragments of bone and was probably not far from 

 the bed in which it was fossilized. Williston states that the remains were from the 

 shales which are "nearly at the upper part of the Carboniferous, probably within 

 one hundred feet of the Manhattan Limestone." 



(d) In 1894 Marsh (406) and earlier (1873) Mudge (490) described footprints of 

 vertebrates from the stone-quarries near Osage City, Kansas. The stone in which 

 they were found was a fine-grained limestone which occurs near the middle of the 

 Kansas Coal Measures. 



(e) Two years later Marsh (407 ) announced the discovery of traces of the oldest 

 known ( Devonian) air-breathing vertebrate. The footprints of Thinopns antiqititswere 

 regarded by Marsh as "apparently amphibian." This still remains the oldest geo- 

 logical evidence of air-breathing vertebrates, although Lohest some years ago (381) 

 called attention to remains from the Devonian of France which he thought might be 

 amphibian. The footprint described by Professor Marsh was "found in the town 

 of Pleasant, one mile south of the Allegheny River, Warren County, Pennsylvania, 

 by Dr. Charles E. Beecher, who presented it to Yale Museum, and also furnished 

 the information in regard to its geological position. . . . The geological horizon 

 is near the top of the Chemung, in the upper Devonian. In the same beds are 

 ripple marks, mud cracks, and impressions of rain drops, indicating shallow water 

 and shore deposits." 



(f) Among the collections of the American Museum there is an impression of a 

 small amphibian foot obtained from Phoenix Tunnel, Pennsylvania. The impres- 

 sion is in hard black slate very similar to the slate of the Cannelton region. It is 

 possible that the specimen may have been obtained from the Cannelton beds, since 

 they would be expected to occur at Phoenix Tunnel. The impression is rather small. 

 It is the footprint of a 5-toed animal, probably of the right foot, since no amphibian 

 (465) so far is known from the Coal Measures with 5 digits on the hand. The first 

 digit is short and thick, with a large ball at its base. The foot measures from the 

 posterior edge of the palm to the tip of the longest digit 12 mm. The length of the 

 first digit is 7 mm. The impression differs in some respects from the impressions so 

 far known from the Coal Measures, but no attempt will be made to assign it to a 



