216 Dr. A. Smith Woodicard — Keujier Footprints. 



of matrix ; and a third fragment (No. Ill) shows an imperfect 

 hinder footprint. 



In No. I (Fig. 1 ) the total length of the fore-foot is 0-04 m., and 

 the maximum breadth 0*025 m. As in the hind-foot, the terminal 

 phalanges are very distinctly shown to have the form of sharp claws, 

 and the fifth digit is slightly opposed to the remainder. The joints 

 of digits I to III are well seen, and comprise respectively 2, 3, and 4 

 phalanges : but Nos. iv and v are unfortunately indistinct. The 

 hind-foot is relatively more elongated than the fore-foot, and 

 measures approximately 0-07 m. in length by 0038 m. in maximum 

 breadth. The first four toes successively increase in size outwards, 

 but the fifth is very small — perhaps, indeed, the smallest. The 

 number of phalanges is 2, 3, and 4 in digits i to iii respectively ; 

 and specimen No. II shows clearly that there are 5 in digit iv. 

 The ' palm ' of the foot, so to speak, is of considerable length, and 

 in the hind-foot much narrowed posteriorly. 



Less distinct footprints of this character have already been 

 ascribed by Sir Richard Owen to Rhynchosauriis,^ and later writers 

 have adopted this interpretation when referring to other similar 

 specimens.- It was not until 1887, however, that it became possible 

 to institute a careful comparison of the marks with the actual feet 

 of the genus just mentioned. In that year Professor Huxley 

 described^ a skeleton of RhyncJiosaurus in the British Museum, 

 which comprises the broken remains of both fore- and hind-feet, 

 agreeing precisely in relative proportions with the Chillington 

 footprints, and almost identical with these in absolute size. So 

 far as can be determined in the fossil, the number of phalanges in 

 the respective digits is quite lacertilian, and the small dimensions 

 of the fifth digit in the footprints is also suggestive of the latter 

 conforming to the same type. Moreover, Bhjnchosaurus must have 

 been an animal of sprawling gait, such as would leave the footprints 

 first described by Murchison and Strickland (loc. cit.) ; and the 

 present specimens, though not in long series, are sufficient to show 

 that a similar form of animal impressed them. The footprints are 

 thus very distinct in character from those of Cheirotherium, in 

 which the feet of the right and left sides are seen to have trodden 

 successively almost in a single straight line. 



The impression of a web between the toes, noted by Murchison 

 and Strickland in the slab in the Warwick Museum, is not clearly 

 shown in tlie new specimens ; but in some of the smaller footprints 

 appearances are suggestive of its original presence. 



^ R. Oweu, " Description of au Extinct Lacertian Eeptile, Rhynchosaurus articeps, 

 Owen " : Trans. Cambridge Phil. Soc, vol. vii (1842), p. 355. Sir Richard Owen 

 refers to the specimens described by 0. Ward — " On Footprints and Ripple Marks of 

 the New Red Sandstone of Grinshill Hill, Shropshire," Brit. Assoc. Rep., 1839, 

 Trans. Sect., p. 75 ; also by Murchison and Strickland, Trans. Geol. Soc. [2], vol. v, 

 p. 339, pi. xxviii, fig. 1, from the Keuper of Shrewley, Warwickshire. 



^ E.g., R. Harkness, "Footprints from Bunter Sandstone, Weston Point, near 

 Runcorn, Cheshire" : Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. [2J, vol. vi (1850), pp. 207, 441. 



3 T.H.Huxley: Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. xliii (1887), pp. 689-692, pi. xxvii. 



