THE CLASPING ORGANS OF EXTINCT AND 

 RECENT AMPHIBIA. 



ROY L. MOODIE, 

 The University of Chicago. 



In the eastern part of Ohio, in the valley of Yellow Creek and 

 near the town of that name though formerly known as Linton, 

 there are some old deserted coal mines which are of interest to 

 the paleontologist on account of the number of vertebrate 

 remains which have been obtained from them. Dr. J. S. New- 

 berry secured from the old Diamond mine near Linton a large 

 amount of material, both of fishes and amphibians. There have 

 been more than a score of fishes described from this collection 

 and nearly two score amphibians. 1 The specimens occur on 

 blocks of coal shale which are obtained from a thin stratum of 

 cannel, a few inches in thickness, underlying over a limited area, 

 a thick bed of cubical coal which is known as the " Ohio No. 6." 

 This is probably the equivalent of the Middle Kitanning Coal of 

 Pennsylvania 2 and is hence in the Allegheny series of the Penn- 

 sylvanian. 



The remains are always crushed fiat but in the majority of 

 cases the minutest details are preserved, although the original 

 form of the bony structure has disappeared and is replaced by 

 carbonaceous matter. In some cases the animal is represented 

 by a mere mold of the carbonaceous shale which formed around 

 it. Of the amphibians known from the Diamond mine there are 

 forty-six species, which are in large part represented by frag- 

 ments but sometimes by incomplete skulls and in a few cases by 

 nearly complete skeletons of the entire animal. Among the 

 objects collected at this locality were some short comb-like bodies 

 found associated with the amphibian remains and it is to these 

 objects that the reader's attention is here invited. 



These elements consist of slender rods which terminate in 

 expanded comb-like ends, the handle being usually from one to 

 two times as long as the comb. The comb is formed of a thick 



1 Newberry, 1889, Monograph, U. S. G. S., Vol. XVI., p. 211. 

 2 Orton, 1893, Geol. Surv. Ohio, Vol. VII., p. 279. 



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