328 KANSAS UNIVERSITY SCIENCE BULLETIN. 
A view of the entire amphibian fauna of the North Ameri- 
can Carboniferous, as we know it at this time, shows us that 
the separate faunas were local, and as such indicate the an- 
cient history of the group at that time. Such a high degree 
of developmtnt and such a wide dispersal of types would 
indicate a long antecedent history. Possibly the Amphibia of 
the Mississippian rocks will yield forms which will connect 
these local faunas; possibly we may have to look to the De- 
vonian for these connections. The early Mississippian and 
Devonian forms are already indicated by footprints, but as 
yet we know nothing of the structure of the creatures which 
made the footprints. 
DESCRIPTIONS OF GENERA AND SPECIES. 
Genus ERIERPETON—New Genus. 
All of the examples of Amphibia loaned the writer by the 
Yale University Museum are capable of identification. One 
of the most unusual forms is represented by a distinct im- 
pression on a weathered ironstone nodule from which all the 
bony matter had become eroded. It is so unusual in form and 
in the characters which it presents that it is deemed worthy 
of description. Since it is totally unlike anything described, 
it must be placed in a new genus, for which the term EL'rierpeton 
is proposed. The name refers to its early appearance. The 
specimen in question is No. 801 (222)5 of Yale Museum. The 
nodule which contains the impression is some three inches 
in long diameter. 
The generic characters are found, first of all, in the presence 
of hyobranchial arches, which indicate its relationship to the 
formerly described Cocytinus gyrinoides Cope, from the Car- 
boniferous of Ohio. The only other known extinct genera 
of Caudata which possess, or at least have preserved, the 
branchial arches are the Jurassic Hylxobatrachus from Bel- 
gium and Lysorophus from the Permian of Texas. The present 
form is widely distinct from both of these genera in the shape 
of the mandible and the form and arrangement of the hyo- 
branchial arches. The new genus finds its closest ally in 
Cocytinus in the family Cocytinidz which possibly belongs in 
the order Caudata and in the suborder Proteida of Cope. 
