DEANE'S FOSSIL FOOTPRINTS. 73 



yet a considerable proportion of the footprints sustain a close resemblance to the feet 

 of existing struthious birds. Most of the footprints are tridactylous, a few have a 

 fourth toe, and others still are characterized with obscure brushy tarsal appendages. 

 But as a general thing the clear unequivocal impressions display three massive toes, 

 a massive heel, and three blunt claws. 



Other creatures co-existed with the numerous tribes of birds, but their numbers as 

 at present understood were not great. Their footprints indicate animals of inferior 

 dimensions as compared with their biped cotemporaries. They are referrible to 

 several species of Batrachian and Chelonian reptiles, the former being characterized 

 by the great disproportion between the size of the posterior and anterior feet, and the 

 latter by their trail. I have elsewhere given drawings of five distinct species of 

 batrachian footprints, and the list might be somewhat extended by recent discoveries. 

 That multitudes of amphibious and other inferior creatures inhabited the ancient seas 

 there is abundant proof, but as the destruction of their organization has been 

 complete, our knowledge of their character is very obscure. Fishes abound in the 

 new red sandstone; and thus during the deposition of this rock three great classes of 

 the animal kingdom were represented, Aves, Pisces, and Reptilia, and the 

 presumption is irresistible that the superior class, Mammalia, was contemporaneous. 



The accompanying plates illustrate five undescribed species of ornithic footprints, 

 derived from Turner's Falls. 



Fig. 2, plate VIII, is an elegant impression. The toes are massive and display the 

 order of articulation. The outer or long toe is somewhat imperfect at the terminal 

 joint. Projecting backward from the toe is a deep circular impression of the outer 

 tubercle of the tarso-metatarsal bone ; the central one is embraced by the first joints of 

 the lateral toes, while the inner one falls behind the short toe. The same 

 arrangement is observed in fig. 1, and thus the aggregate of depressions in good 

 examples is fifteen ; namely, for the inner toe two, middle three and outer four, 

 three for the nails and three for the heel.* Fig. 1 shows this method very clearly. 

 It will at once be seen that this footprint is specifically different from that of 

 fig. 2. The toes are slender, widely separated, and the foot is much smaller. The 

 stride in fig. 2 is fourteen inches, and in fig. 1 it is ten inches. Either of these 

 footprints may be taken as a model for comparison, for in each every essential feature 

 is accurately impressed. They do not differ materially from manyother impressions ; 

 still to the practised eye the form of the foot and individual toes, length of stride, &c., 

 separate them from all others hitherto discovered. The toes in fig. 2 are extremely 

 fleshy and stout, whereas in fig. 1 they are tapering and slight. 



Fig. 3, is a singular impression lately discovered by Mr. Marsh, and added to his 

 magnificent collection of sandstone fossils. He believes it to be a palmated foot, but 



♦It rarely happens, however, that the inner tubercle of the tarso-metatarsal bone is impressed. 



