MESOZOIC ERA. AGE OF REPTILES. 



343 



some were short-tailed or tailless. These have been re- 

 garded "by some as wingless birds. They were probably 

 b 



FIG. 292. FIG. 293. FIG. 294. 



FIGS. 292-294. Reptile tracks (after Hitchcock) : 292. Gigantitherium caudatum, 

 x ,&. 293. Anomoepue minor, x : a, hind-foot ; 6, fore-foot. 294. Track of 

 Brontozoum giganteum, x . 



all reptiles. One of these wonderful two-legged reptiles 

 is given in Fig. 295. 



The general conclusion, then, is that all these tracks 

 were those of Dinosaurs and, possibly, Labyrinthodonts. 

 In Jura-Trias times there seems to have been in this 

 place an estuary, into which the tides ebbed and flowed. 

 At low tide, reptiles of many kinds were in the habit of 

 walking on the soft, exposed mud in search of food left 

 by the retreating tide. The incoming tide covered the 

 tracks with fine sediment, and preserved them till now, 

 the sediments, meantime, hardening into stone. 



2. New Jersey Patch. In this patch we find the 

 same redness of the sandstone, and therefore the sumo 

 poverty of fossils. Of this sandstone have been built all 



