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logical point of view. These prints serve, in the author's 

 opinion, to associate the Red Sandstones of Dumfries-shire 

 and the footprint-beds near Elgin to the Permian ; while tracks 

 recently discovered near Exeter will, it is expected, throw light 

 on the age of the red rocks of Devonshire. 



In a paper {Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. vol. xxxvii. pp. 11-28) on 

 the Carboniferous air-breathing vertebrates in the collection of 

 the U.S. National Museum, Mr. R. S. Moodie directs special 

 attention to the skeleton forming the only known example of 

 Isodectes punctatus, and unfortunately lacking the skull. The 

 close relationship of this reptile to the Microsauria seems to 

 be well established, although to what group of reptiles it 

 comes nearest cannot at present be ascertained. Some distant 

 resemblances to the Brazilian Mesosaurus are pointed out. 



In the paper just cited, as well as in one published in the 

 Journal of Geology, vol. xvii. pp. 38-82, Mr. Moodie describes a 

 number of American Carboniferous stegocephalian amphibians, 

 among which several genera and species are new. The author 

 considers that stegocephalians should be divided into the five 

 suborders Branchiosauria, Microsauria, Aistopoda, Temno- 

 spondyli, and Stereospondyli. Of these, the Branchiosauria 

 were salamander-like in form and for the most part devoid of 

 heavy dermal armour, being naked except for small oval scales 

 on the back and the usual chevron-shaped ventral armature 

 characteristic of stegocephalians generally. The long and 

 compressed tail indicates an aquatic mode of life ; and this is 

 confirmed by the presence in many forms, at least during the 

 early stages of existence, of gills. " The group of the Branchio- 

 sauria are without doubt the direct ancestors of the modern 

 salamanders and perhaps of the other groups as well." The new 

 genus and species Micrerpeton caudatum is the only known North 

 American member of the group, and also the only one from the 

 Carboniferous. Special attention is directed to the similarity 

 existing between the lateral line-system of this genus and that 

 of the larva of the existing American salamander Necturus. 



In the second of the above-mentioned papers by Dr. R. Broom 

 in vol. vii. of the Annals of the South African Museum two 

 Karu stegocephalians are referred respectively to the European 

 genera Trematosaurus and Capitosaurns, under the names of 

 T. kannemeyeri and C. africanus. 



A labyrinthodont skeleton from oil-shales at Airby, New 



