188 LEA'S DESCRIPTION OF A FOSSIL SAURIAN 



Batrachians having been found in the New Red Sandstone of this country ; but 

 recently some of the vertebrae, ribs, and teeth of a Sauroid animal, of considerable 

 size have been found, near Hassac's creek, in Upper Milford, Lehigh county, Pa., 

 by Dr. J. Y. Shelley, of Berk's county, who presented them to the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences, in November, 1847. These interesting fossil remains were 

 supposed to be coeval with the fossil foot-prints which Dr. King discovered in the 

 sandstones of the coal measures. In the examination of them I came to a different 

 conclusion, and I am of opinion that they belong to the well known New. Red 

 Sandstone formation of Pennsylvania.* (See Proceedings Acad. Nat. Sci., vol. 5, 

 pp. 171 and 205, Clepsysaw'us Pennsijloanicus, Lea.) The lithological character of 

 the rock, (impure conglomerate limestone,) and its geographical position, would 

 indicate this; and there need be no disappointment in this reference to a later period, 

 for this specimen has the great interest of being, so far as I know, the only well 

 authenticated portion of a skeleton of a Saurian found in the new red sandstone of 

 this country. In Europe, some of the bones and teeth of the Cheirotherium have 

 been found in the Triassic portion of the new red sandstone, of which the tracks had 

 long been noticed. These prove it to be a gigantic Batrachian. Also the tracks, and 

 subsequently the bones of the Rhyncosaurus articeps, Owen, were discovered in the 

 Upper New Red Sandstone near Shrewsbury. In the Magnesian Limestone the The- 

 naropus had been observed, and in the Muschelkalk the Nothosaurus. 



The " New Red Sandstone " formation, so called, of the United States, seems to 

 belong, or rather to consist of a single member of the system. The " New Red 

 Sandstone " of British and Continental geologists, has been divided into " Lower 

 New Red Sandstone," (Permian,) and " Upper New Red Sandstone," (Trias,) these 

 divisions being sub-divided usually into three parts each ; the lower portion of the 

 Permian is known in Germany as " Rothliegendes," the second as " Zechstein," the 

 third as " Magnesian Limestone." The "Trias," is divided by Lyell into Lower, 

 Middle and Upper Trias; but these divisions are better known as " Bunter Sand- 

 stone," " Muschelkalk," and " Keuper." 



In the Virginia and Pennsylvania State Reports, the Messrs. Rogers call this great 

 belt of red sandstone and conglomerates, the " Middle Secondary Red Sandstone." 

 It passes from South Carolina, along the eastern border of the first range of 



* Some doubt has arisen in the minds of some of our geologists, as stated before, as to the identity of the New 

 Red Sandstone of Europe with the red sandstone formation which stretches, like a great river, through our 

 Middle States. Dr. Jackson says he "agrees with Elie de Beaumont, that what is here called the New Red 

 Sandstone, is not the same as the New Red Sandstone (properly so-called) of Europe." Geologists generally, 

 in this country, have dissented from Mr. Maclure's idea of its being the Old Red Sandstone, and they have placed 

 it correctly as the analogue of the European New Red Sandstone. This is the opinion of Prof. Hitchcock and 

 Prof. Agassiz, and other eminent geologists, and is certainly my own. Its position in that group will be treated 

 of hereafter. 



