FOOTPRINTS IN THE ROCKS. 



435 



kangaroo-like reptiles flourishing, in the later Mesozoic times, in all 

 quarters of the globe. All those new forms present features clearly 

 defining them from both birds on the one hand, and reptiles on the 

 other, so that we are warranted in believing in the existence of gen- 

 uine birds as well as of or- 

 nithic reptiles in ichniferous 

 times. 



The Triassic period was par 

 excellence the Age of Reptiles. 

 Besides the Ichnozoa, the mu- 

 seums teem with specimens of 

 fossil bones of various types of 

 Amphibian, Batrachian, Croc- 

 odilian, and Lacertilian forms. 

 We should, therefore, natural- 

 ly expect that a kangaroo- 

 form of body was not indica- 

 tive of marsupial structure, but 

 rather a modification of reptil- 

 ian, in the passage, if we may 

 so speak, of the Lacertian to 

 the Ornithic type. 



Twenty-one of the Connec- 

 ticut ichnites have been in- 

 ferred to the ordinary type of 

 reptiles the Lacertians -and 

 six to the turtles. Perhaps 

 the number of the former 

 should be increased at the 

 expense of the marsupials 

 and narrow-toed birds. The 

 largest reptile foot is about 

 15 inches long, three toes in 

 front, curved toward the line 

 of march. It has, besides, a 

 6tout thumb, or spur, pointed 

 inwardly. The track-ways of turtles show the trail of the tail, in ad- 

 dition to a pair of feet on both sides. 



The group of Amphibians, chiefly batrachians, contains several of 

 interest. Prominent among them is the Otozoum, a track discovered 

 by Mr. Pliny Moody, the first person in the whole world who ex- 

 humed an ichnite, so far as has been determined. The animal had a 

 foot 20 inches long, very broad, perhaps web-footed, embracing not 

 less than a square foot of surface. In shape it resembles the Cheiro- 

 therium, only it had three fingers instead of four, with a thumb. One 

 species has the thumb recurved, and the other shows it pointed direct- 



GlGANTTTHEETUM. 



