48 Two New Species of Fossil Footmarks. 



ther reflection and new discoveries have led me to alter somewhat 

 the names which I presented to the Geological Association. But 

 as I offered at that time no descriptions, I suppose such changes 

 are lawful, according to the rules of zoological nomenclature. 



My present object, however, is not to present a complete view 

 of this subject, but only to describe two new species recently dis- 

 covered in South Hadley. They were brought to light by Pliny 

 Moody, Esq., the same individual, who, about forty-six years ago, 

 discovered near the same spot, the first specimen of footmarks 

 ever noticed as an object of interest in the valley of the Con- 

 necticut. That specimen, described and figured in my final Re- 

 port on the Geology of Massachusetts, plate 48, fig. 55, and now 

 in my cabinet, was turned up by Mr. Moody, then a boy, while 

 ploughing upon his father's farm, and recognized as a row of 

 tracks made by a bird. While he was absent at college, it passed 

 into the hands of Dr. Dwight, of South Hadley. Yet now, after 

 the lapse of nearly half a century, Mr. Moody has found, within 

 ten rods of his house, perhaps the largest and most extraordinary 

 track yet brought to light in this valley. It is but an act of jus- 

 tice, therefore, it seems to me, to affix his name to this most re- 

 markable species, which would have been destroyed by the quar- 

 ryman had he not rescued it. The slab containing it, is, indeed, 

 considerably mutilated, and only one very distinct track remains. 

 But three others of the same animal are obvious, and enable me to 

 give its characters with considerable confidence. This inter- 

 esting slab is about ten feet long, six or eight inches thick, and 

 weighs more than half a ton. It is broken open lengthwise, as 

 shown in the drawing, fig. 1 : and some smaller fragments are 

 broken off, some of which are lost. Mr. Moody having allowed 

 me to deposit this slab in the Cabinet of Amherst College, 1 



_ ments together, and am gratified to find so 

 much remaining. Besides the large tracks, several rows of smaller 



:ed almost without any loss. Of the large tracks, 



e second (A, fig. 1,) is the most perfect, being 



deficient in nothin 



species 

 four remain. 



or 



6 



middle 



a confusion at the end of the shortest lateral toe.* So peculiar is 

 the shape of this track, and so different its phalangeal impressions 

 from those of the feet of any living animal with which I am ac- 

 quainted, that I should hardly have dared to describe it frcm & 

 single specimen, had I not found its essential features exhibited in 

 the other tracks. Some of these are badly broken, and others are 

 indistinct, owing apparently to the peculiar state of the mud when 

 they were made. Yet enough remains to identify them with the 

 most perfect one just described. It is clear, also, that they were 



* Pres. Hitchcock sent for this Journal an outline sketch of this remarkable track, 

 of full size, (twenty inches in length,) which from the magnitude of the plate re- 

 quired for it, is not inserted. 

























