THE KANSAS UNIVERSITY 

 SCIENCE BULLETIN. 



VOL. IX, No. 16.] SEPTEMBER, 1915. [* 



Whole Series 

 L. XIX, No. 16 



Some Methods of Studying Fossil Amphibia 



Embedded in Coal. 



ROY L. MOODIE, 



Associate in Anatomy, University of Illinois, Chicago. 



Contribution from the Zoological Laboratory, No. 216. 



Plate L. 



THE study of fossils embedded in soft coal or shale has 

 always been somewhat of a problem. Various means have 

 been devised for the interpretation of the elements preserved, 

 all of which have good points for the material in which the 

 fossils are enclosed. The fossils embedded in coal are nearly 

 always very fragile, or else only a mold of the skeleton is pre- 

 served, and the problem for the student is how best to obtain 

 an idea of the form of the animal and still preserve the ma- 

 terial for future investigators. 



Jaekel (1) has devised a method by means of which the bones 

 are removed from the coal, either by mechanical means or by 

 chemicals, and impressions made of the mold either in wax, 

 gutta-percha or plaster. He has been followed in this by his 

 student, Schwarz (2). Their results are uniformly excellent, 

 though their interpretations of the elements may, in some 

 cases, be open to question. In regard to the methods of study 

 Schwarz says: 



"Der Erhaltungszustand ist im allgemeinen recht schlect. Dies 

 gilt besonders von den amerikanischen Formen und ... in der 

 erwahten Arbeit betrachtet, an denen oft kaum die Umrisse 



Received for publication May 12, 1915. 



(187) 



2 — Univ. Sci. Bull., Vol. IX, No. 16. 



