la THE COAL MEASURES AMPHIBIA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



(A) Mr. N. H. Bro\\Ti, in 1914, discovered in the Carboniferous rocks to the east 

 of the Wind River Mountains, near Lander, Wyoming, a single fragment of an 

 amphibian. The writer was accompanying Mr. Brown at the time of the discovery 

 and there can be no doubt that the fragment was amphibian ; the location of the beds 

 was such that no later age than the Coal Measures can be assigned to them. 



(»') Dr. J. A. Udden (577), in 191 2, announced the discovery of an amphibian 

 in the Des Moines formation of Iowa. These remains were identified by Dr. Charles 

 Eastman as Pleuroptyx clavutiis Cope. Since the Des Moines is probably nearly 

 contemporaneous with the Mazon Creek shales of Illinois, the discovery does not 

 extend the geological range to any extent, but is of interest as it adds another note 

 to our knowledge of the geographical distribution of the Amphibia in the Coal 

 Measures. 



(j) The Gurley collection of the University of Chicago possesses a single cervical 

 vertebra of some amphibian ( ?) . The vertebra is unlike anything previously described 

 and represents a new form (plate 22, fig. 2) which may be designated Proterpelon 

 gurleyi, new genus and species. The material was collected near Danville, Illinois. 



{k) Deposits have beert discovered in Pennsylvania in which are found the 

 remains of amphibians and reptiles, very similar to those from Vermilion Cotmty, 

 Illinois, Cowley Coimty, Kansas, and the Texas Permian. The remains (plate 18, 

 fig. 2) were foimd in a thin stratum below the "Ames" limestone, and are therefore 

 in the Coal Measures, fairly well below the top. The fossils, as described by Case 

 (94), consist of fragments which he ascribes to pelycosaurian reptiles and to temno- 

 spondylous amphibians. The genus Eryops (94) is recognized in several fragments 

 and a nearly complete dorsal vertebral centrum. Other types of Amphibia are like- 

 wise represented. 



(/) The ironstone nodules, in which the Mazon Creek fossils (plate i) occur, are 

 fovmd in the shale which forms the roof of the Morris or "No. 2" Coal of Illinois, 

 which "lies probably somewhat lower than the horizon of the Lower Kittanning 

 Coal of Pennsylvania" (599). "The nodules of iron contained in the Coal shales 

 on the banks of Mazon Creek near Morris, Illinois, generally contain organic 

 nuclei, and thousands of beautiful specimens have been obtained there. They are 

 usually fragments of fern fronds, but are sometimes shells, crustaceans, myriapods, 

 scorpions, spiders, cockroaches, . . . fishes" (498, p. 214), and amphibians, of which 

 10 species are at present known. 



These species have been arranged zoologically according to the following plan: 



Class Amphibia Linn<5, 1758. 



Subclass Euamphibia Moodie, 1909. 



Order Branchiosauria Lydckkcr, 1889. 



Family Branchiosauridce Fritsch, 1879. 

 Micrerpeton caudatum Moodie, 1909. 

 Eumicrerpeton parvum Moodie, 1910. 

 Mazonerpelon longicaudatum Moodie, 191 2. 

 Mazatierpeton costalum Moodie, 191 2. 

 Order Caudata Dumcril, 1806. 

 Suborder Proteida Cope. 



Family Cocyiinida Moodie, 191 2. 



Erierpeton branchialis Moodie, 191 2. 



