88 Boston Society of Natural History 



ment. Other fossils of the same period are from Newport, Rhode 

 Island. 



The succeeding periods known as the Ordovician and Silurian 

 are represented by several forms of life including large cephalopods 

 and small brachiopods from western Vermont, whose shells some- 

 what resemble clams or scallops of our present time. Most of these 

 brachiopods became extinct ages ago, but it is interesting to note 

 that a few have persisted until to-day, practically unchanged. Tril- 

 obites are also found in this period and the Society has one speci- 

 men, the only one of its kind ever found. This came from the Chap- 

 man Plantation in Maine. Another unique specimen is a fossil star- 

 fish from New England. 



The next great age is often called "The Age of Fishes," as it was 

 at this time that the first vertebrate animals appeared. This is rep- 

 resented in New England by the fossil ferns from Perry, Maine, 

 and a number of more lightly developed brachiopods from the same 

 state. The succeeding coal-forming period, known as the Carbonif- 

 erous, is represented in the collection by the giant rushes and tree 

 ferns from Attleboro and Mansfield, in Massachusetts, and Narra- 

 gansett, Rhode Island. From the next great period, the " Age of 

 Reptiles," we have a most remarkable series of fossil footprints 

 from the Connecticut Valley. Most of these were made by the di- 

 nosaurs, which attained, in some cases, tremendous size, but we also 

 have some very small tracks thought to have been made by insects, 

 and several "fossil showers" recorded by raindrop impressions on 

 the same slabs of rock as the great dinosaur footprints. One of the 

 rare dinosaur bones from this region is also in our collection. From 

 rocks of the same period, also in the Connecticut Valley, we have a 

 large collection of fossil fishes. 



The more recent "Age of Mammals" is represented by the fossil 



