THE STEREOSPONDYLOUS AMPHIBIA. 1 99 



blackish material, with the exterior smooth, shining black. It has about 20 narrow 

 flutings, nearly straight, miming from the base to the tip, separating shallow grooves. 

 A transverse section of the base shows a narrow pulp-cavity not more than 5 mm. 

 in diameter which extends in about the same proportional width to beyond the 

 middle of the tooth, and in all probability to near the apex. The cross-section of 

 the tooth throughout is nearly or quite circular. 



A hemisection of the tooth was made near the middle, showing a structure most 

 remarkably like that of Mastodonsaurus; so nearly alike, in fact, that there is no dif- 

 ference from the large figtu"e given by Owen of a section of Mastodonsaurus (502). 



The discovery of this tooth in the Kansas Coal Measures is of great interest, 

 proving, as it does, the presence of true labyrinthodonts from a lower horizon than 

 elsewhere recorded. The discovery of Eobaphetes kansensis Moodie in the Carbo- 

 niferous of Washington County (473) would seem to indicate another labyrinthodont. 

 The tooth from Louisville was possibly not the first evidence of labyrintho- 

 donts in North America, since the discovery by Marsh of Eosaurus acadianus from 

 the Coal Measures of Nova Scotia, possibly a member of the Stereospondylia, ante- 

 dates this discovery 30 years. The specimen is preserved in the Museum at the 

 University of Kansas. 



AMPHIBIAN FOOTPRINTS FROM THE COAL MEASURES. 



Footprints may be said to be fairly common in the Coal Measures of North 

 America. Especial attention has been given to the classification of these objects 

 by G. F. Matthew (408-413), Dawson (208-210) and others. Hay (317, pp. 538- 

 553) has given a catalogue of all the species described from the Coal Measures of 

 North America, to which the reader is referred for further information in regard to 

 these interesting evidences of former animal activities. The writer has not been 

 interested in the taxonomy of footprints, but has studied such as have come to his 

 notice (465). A description of the species Dromopus agilis Marsh (fig. 43) is 

 given here, because there is a large slab in the University of Kansas Museum which 

 has not been figured. Since the chief interest in the present contribution is mor- 

 phology, footprints are thus scantily dealt with. Leidy (374) , Dawson (207) , Moodie 

 (465, pi. LXiv, fig. i) and others have given various brief descriptions of Coal Meas- 

 ures footprints, probably all of which are evidences of Amphibia which are other- 

 wise unknown. 



Dromopus agilis Marsh. 



Marsh, Jour. Sci. (3), xlviii, p. 82, pi. ii, fig. 3; pi. iii, fig. 3, 1894. 

 Hay, Bull. U. S. Geol. Surv., No. 179, p. 543, 1902. 



Type: Specimen in the Yale University Museum. 



Horizon and locality: Osage limestone (Coal Measures), near Osage City, 

 Kansas. 



In 1894 Professor Marsh described a collection of footprints which he had secured 

 from Professor B. F. Mudge, of Manhattan, Kansas, who had collected them in 

 Osage County, Kansas, in a rock quarry, having purchased a large quantity of 

 rock from the quarrymen for that purpose. A preliminary note by Mudge (490) 



