THE KANSAS. UNIVERSITY _ 
SCIENCE BULLETIN. 
Vou. VI, No. 2] JANUARY, 1912, [ymouz, Seains. 
VOL. XVI} NO! 2: 
oa PENNSYLVANIC AMPHIBIA OF THE MAZON 
CREEK, ILLINOIS, SHALES.*” + 
(Contribution from the Zoological Laboratory, No.’ 198.) 
’ BY ROY L. MOODIE. 
Plates 1-14. 
INTRODUCTION. 
HE fossil: bearing nodules from the anes alone Mazon 
me Creek, Grundy county, Illinois, have, ever since their 
. discovery, been very prolific in excellently preserved: 
and: highly interesting forms of both. plants ‘and animals. 
Among the latter there have been examples of nearly all the’ 
groups which one could hope to find in a brackish or fresh: 
water and inland deposit.. These forms range from low down 
in the zodlogical scale to the forms which must have stood in 
an ancestral relation to the reptiles. No true reptiles have 
been discovered in the deposits, although the discovery of 
such a group there would not be surprising in the least, yet 
of the greatest interest. <A single excellently preserved skele- 
ton of a true reptile is known from the Linton Coal of Ohio, 
and has been described by Cope, Williston and the writer.’ 
Two true reptiles are known also from the Carboniferous beds’ 
of Commentry, France, and examples of reptiles are known 
from the Rothliegenden of Saxony and from the Gaskohle of 
Bohemia. The lower portions of these latter deposits are un- 
doubtedly of Upper Carboniferous age. 
The fauna and flora of the Mazon Creek shales have been 
described by many authors. Doctor Eastman, in 1902, pub- 
* Received for publication March, 1911. 
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