n the Jfootprints of a 

 linosftitr (Igtranoiou ?), from the ftovbeck 

 f tbs of 



By J. C. MANSEL-PLEYDELL, Esq., F.G.S,, F.L.S, 



Ecad December 13th, 1895. 



HEN examining a series of Purbeck fossils which the 

 County Museum had recently acquired through 

 the generosity of the Trustees of the Corfe Museum, 

 I observed the casts of footprints of a large three- 

 toed animal impressed on two slabs of Purbeck stone, 

 each measuring 12 inches in length, one covered with 

 coarse, tortuous, fucoidal-like markings. Similar 

 impressions are not unfrequently seen in the Wealden beds, and 

 were thought by former observers to have been made by birds as 

 they traversed the muddy shores of that period. The abundant 

 remains of Iguanodon and other dinosaurs subsequently led to the 

 now generally accepted opinion that they are the footprints of these 

 gigantic reptiles. Ichnilithology, a name used by Dr. Buckland for 

 the study of fossil foot-marks, is a very interesting branch of palaeon- 

 tology and one which has attracted the attention of British, German, 

 and American geologists. In Vol. XL of Transactions of the Royal 

 Society of Edinburgh, 1828, Dr. Duncan refers to foot-tracks in 



