1 82 Evolution and Distribution of Fishes 



formation of the natural fish oil when heated by the vol- 

 canic flows. 



Chamberlin considered (5:111:9) ^hat the deposits 

 were of "shallow water or subaerial origin," the latter being 

 indicated by the numerous "ripple marks, sun-cracks, tracks 

 of land animals, etc." 



Eastman, in "Triassic Fishes of Connecticut" {130: ), 

 says: "While there is nothing in the character of the fossil 

 fishes which would prove conclusively whether the deposits 

 were formed in salt or brakish or fresh water, the physical 

 character of the deposits, and the fossils other than fishes 

 found in them, make it substantially certain that the de- 

 posits are not marine. No corals, echinoderms, or brachio- 

 pods have been found in the Triassic in Connecticut or in 

 any other of the Triassic basins of eastern North America. 

 Molluscs are very few, and most of those found are un- 

 doubtedly fresh-water forms. A very few marine molluscs, 

 it is claimed, have been found in the Triassic of Pennsyl- 

 vania. A few Crustacea, probably freshwater or brakish- 

 water forms, have been found in some of the southern 

 Triassic basins, though not in Connecticut. A few insect 

 larvae have been found. For the rest the fossils of the 

 formation consist of land plants and tracks of reptiles and 

 amphibians, with a few skeletons of reptiles. Such an 

 assemblage of fossils makes it clear that the formation is 

 not marine, though the presence of a few marine shells (if 

 those shells are rightly identified) indicate conditions in 

 part estuarine." 



The organic remains from this Newark series consist 

 of plants with aflinity to Carbo-Permian genera, but in the 

 cycadeous and coniferous forms approach much more nearly 

 to a later Mesozoic age. The animals are fishes, am- 

 phibians, reptiles, and — at Turner's Falls — apparently 

 birds. While fishes are abundant in various beds, amphibio- 

 reptilian animals are scant in their osseous remains, but 

 are often richly indicated by their footprints. These alone 

 proclaim that an abundant amphibian life — possibly de- 

 rived by evolution from the varied Carbo-Permlan amphi- 

 bian organisms of the Texan area — occupied the margins 

 of the lakes or river-plains, and this entirely agrees with the 



