116 FOOTPRINTS OF A DINOSAUR. 



the trias of Dumfriesshire in several successive strata ; some in the 

 trias at Heldberghausen, Saxony, have been recorded in 1834. 

 The prints of the fore-feet of some \vcre 8| inches long and five 

 broad, those of the hind-feet were four inches long and three broad. 

 Sir Richard Owen was then investigating the gigantic Batrachians 

 of the trias, and thought they were made probably by Labyrin- 

 thodonts (gigantic palaeozoic Batrachians). In 1851 Mr. G. P. 

 Scrope found abundant foot-tracks of small animals in the forest 

 marble near Bath. Between the years 1850 and 1854 Mr. Beckles 

 found a series of impressions of gigantic tridactyle foot-tracks 

 throughout an extensive series of Wealden rocks, exposed on the 

 cliffs between Hastings and Pevensey. Numerous as they were, 

 each block did not show more than two or three impressions, all of 

 which were tridactyle. That of the inner toe was the shortest and 

 the middle the longest. None showed any phalangial division owing 

 probably to a thick padding of the sole. It is to be regretted that a 

 sufficient series could not have been traced to ascertain the length 

 of the strides and the probable mode of progression. Professor 

 Hitchcock gives valuable information upon the foot-tracks found 

 in the Connecticut Valley, U.S., the great majority of which are 

 tridactyle, and, like the European tracks, are generally ascribed 

 to those of Dinosaurs. These prints vary in size from a quarter 

 of an inch to 20 inches in length, some showing a stride of 

 four feet. Many thousands of these tracks have been exposed. 

 Professor Hitchcock recognises as many as 50 species, some of 

 which must have been of gigantic size. Their mode of progression 

 was not by bounds or jumps as with kangaroos, but by alternate 

 steps, the right and left feet moving in two parallel rows, not in a 

 line as birds. The tracks show a large expanse of foot, a necessary 

 provision for an animal of such enormous size and weight to 

 prevent it from sinking into the morasses and bogs through which 

 it roamed. 



How these foot-tracks have been preserved is a subject for 

 enquiry. It is evident they were made when the ground was soft 

 and impressible and under conditions rendering it capable to retain 



