46 Two New Species of Fossil Footmarks. 



Art. VII. — Description of Two Neia Species of Fossil Foot- 

 marks found in Massachusetts and Connecticut, or, of the Ani- 

 mals that made them; by Rev. Edward Hitchcock, President 

 of Amherst College, and Professor of Natural Theology and 

 Geology. 



I have long wished to describe several new and peculiar fossil 

 footmarks which have been brought to light in the sandstone of 

 the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts and Connecticut. But 

 a constant pressure of more important duties has delayed the 

 work, not months merely, but years. I have determined, how- 



ever, 



may 



prosecute the descriptions in future numbers of the American 

 Journal of Science. For the present I content myself with de- 

 scribing two species ; one of them, if I rightly understand it, of 

 most extraordinary dimensions and character. 



Before the Association of American Geologists and Naturalists, 

 at their meeting in New Haven, in 1845, I communicated a 

 paper, in which, instead of naming the tracks, as I had formerly 

 done, I attempted to name the animals that made them. That 

 paper I have never found time to get ready for the press ; though 

 a list of names was given in the Proceedings of that Society. 



am 



by my friend, Mr. James D. Dana, is the true one by which 

 these singular relics should be described. 



I have been surprised, however, to learn that some object to 

 giving scientific names, either to these footmarks, or to the ani- 

 mals that impressed them ; because they think the characters by 

 which they must be described too indefinite for distinguishing 

 species, or even genera. My reasons for a contrary opinion are 

 briefly as follows. 



1. The existence of these tracks demonstrates the existence 

 of certain animals that made them during the triassic period. 

 2. The facts well known concerning organic remains, render it 

 almost certain, that these animals have never been described, 

 either in the living or fossil fauna of any country, 3. All who 

 have seen a good collection of these tracks, will be satisfied that 

 they were made by several species of animals. Now this convic- 

 tion must result from some diversity of character, which we wit- 

 ness in these footmarks. And if that diversity could produce 

 such a conviction, it can be expressed in words ; and thus the 

 different species, at least many of them, be distinguished from one 

 another. If they cannot thus be distinguished, then they must 

 be regarded as only varieties of the same species. But no com- 



;sible. 4. Compara- 

 irest and most con- 



parative 



stant characters bv which animals are distin 



