52 Two New Species of Fossil Footman 



inches for the smaller animal, and 47 inches for the larger one ; 

 that is, from the hip joint to the ground. This is rather more 

 than the length of the leg of the Red Flamingo of this country, 

 which I think also has a larger foot than the fossil bird. 



I now proceed to describe the large and extraordinary animal 

 whose tracks occur on the same slab with the B. parallelum, (fig. 1,) 

 but whose affinities to any existing animal are far less obvious. For 

 this remarkable animal 1 have selected the generic name of Oto- | 

 zoum, from that of Otus, one of the fabled prasadamic giants, j 

 The meaning of Otozoum is, an animal Otus, or giant. 



The description of the foot of this animal, as we learn it from 

 its footmarks, will depend to a considerable extent upon the zoo- 

 logical class to which we refer it. The protuberances exhibited 

 on the footmark may be all the result of phalangeal impressions; J 

 or a part of them may be produced by carpal or metacarpal, or if 

 by the hind foot, by tarsal or metatarsal bones : or if the animal 

 were a bird, by the distal extremity of its tarso-metatarsal bone. 

 Can we then discover to what class of animals these tracks are to 

 be referred ? 



In the first place, the proof seems quite strong that they must 

 have been made by a biped. This evidence is shown on fig. 1 [ 

 where it will be seen that the feet regularly alternate as those of 

 a biped would do. But if made by a quadruped, there ought to 

 be two rows, or at least two tracks, near to each other, separated 

 by a longer interval from two others in close proximity : for : " 

 one or the other of these modes do most quadrupeds (except those 

 that leap, and those that bring up the hind foot exactly into the 

 place impressed by the fore foot) advance. Besides, the distance 

 of the tracks to the right and left of the animaPs general course 

 is no greater than a biped so large would exhibit : whereas if it 

 were a quadruped, that distance must have been much larger, and 

 the axes of the feet would probably be more divaricate. 



When I saw that these tracks were four-toed, it occurred to me 

 that they might have been made by the hind foot of the croco- 

 dile. But their biped character forbids the supposition : and be- 

 sides, the phalangeal impressions do not agree at all with the ph a- 

 langes of that animal, which are two in the inner toe of the hind 

 foot, three in the second, and four in the third and fourth.* This 

 latter reason, as well as the number of toes, affords strong evidence 

 against the supposition that this animal was a bird. Some slight 

 resemblance may be noticed between the accompanying drawing? 



in 



i 



fig. 2, and the feet of the Armadillos, as given in the Ossemens 



Fossiles 1 tome cinquieme^ PL X/, Jigs. 10 to 14 ; yet I doubt 



whether the resemblance is real. 



* 



On showing a drawing of this track to Professor Agassiz 

 he made a suggestion as to the nature of the animal that im 



* Cuvier, Ossemens Fossiles, Tome cinquierae, p. 104. 



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