EDWARD HITCHCOCK. 



2Q5 



their report, issued in 1841, states, "From a comparative ex- 

 amination of the facts on both sides, your committee unani- 

 mously believe that the evidence entirely favours the views of 

 Prof. Hitchcock, and should regret that a difference had ex- 

 isted, if they did not feel assured it would lead to greater sta- 

 bility of opinion." 



The publications upon the subject of these Triassic foot- 

 marks by Prof. Hitchcock have been quite numerous. The 

 most important were that in the final report upon the 

 geology of Massachusetts in 1841, a paper in the Trans- 

 actions of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 

 1848, in the Ichnology of New England, published by the 

 State of Massachusetts in 1859 and its supplement in 1865. 

 The total number of species described, as finally revised, 

 amounted to one hundred and fifty. They were referred 

 to several groups : a few marsupialoids, thick and narrow-toed 

 birds, ornithoid lizards or batrachians, lizards, batrachians, 

 chelonians, fish, Crustacea, myriapods, insects, and worms. At 

 first the trifid impressions were referred to birds ; and it was 

 considered a remarkable confirmation of this view that in 1838 

 or 1839 there should have been found in New Zealand the 

 bones of true birds having the same dimensions as the largest 

 Brontozoum. Prof. Owen has stated that his belief in the 

 ornithic character of the Deinornis was strongly fortified by 

 the fact of the existence of the Brontozoum. Very soon after 

 the earliest publications about these ornithichnites specimens 

 were exhumed which became very puzzling because of the pres- 

 ence of quadrupedal characters. It became very clear that 

 there must be an intermediate class of beings between birds 

 and reptiles, and accordingly this conclusion was embodied in 

 the assignment of a large number of these Ichnozoa to the desig- 

 nation of "ornithoid lizards or batrachians." As time has 

 progressed the order of Deinosaur has been proposed, to in- 

 clude such animals as have been made known to us by their 

 bones; and now it is doubtful whether any of the impressions 

 were made by birds. Prof. O. C. Marsh has obtained entire 

 skeletons of Deinosaurs from the Connecticut sandstones, which 

 he calls Anchisaurus. They seem to be allied to the Plesiornis 

 rather than the Anomcepus or Brontozoum of Hitchcock. 



The specimens from which the opinions and descriptions of 

 the ichnology were derived are preserved in the Hitchcock 



