212 PROCEEDINGS OF THE PALEONTOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



In the next paper, read by Dr. Matthew, the author describes footprints 

 of which plaster casts were exhibited. 



HUGE AMPHIBIAN FROM THE UPPER GOAL MEASURES OF KANSAS 



BY H. T. MARTIN 



(Abstract) 



A huge amphibian is indicated in a series of footprints recently discovered 

 in the sandstone of the Upper Coal Measures of Kansas. The impressions, 

 measuring some 7 inches in length and 6 inches in breadth, extend for a dis- 

 tance of 25 feet with slight interruptions, along a sandstone ledge, which is 

 regarded as a phase of the Weston shales, lying immediately below the Kick- 

 apoo (Iatan) limestone, exposed on the banks of the Wakarusa Creek, near 

 Dighfmans Crossing, some 5 miles southeast of Lawrence, Kansas. 



Some of the impressions are very well preserved, and indicate four toes on 

 the front feet and five on the hind feet, for which reason I think an amphibian 

 is indicated. Large amphibians are known from the Kansas Coal Measures 

 by the footprints described by Mudge and Marsh from Osage County and by 

 skeletal remains described by Moodie from Washington County. A much larger 

 type of vertebrate is indicated by the present footprints, however ; in fact, we 

 may say that these footprints represent the largest land vertebrates so far 

 recorded from the pre-Triassic rocks. The majority of Coal Measures amphib- 

 ians are extremely small, measuring only a few inches in length ; but the 

 animal which made these tracks must have been from 15 to 20 feet in length 

 and is comparable in size to Mastodonsaurus of the European Triassic. 



In the following paper the primitive characters of the Merycoido- 

 dontida? were listed in some detail, showing a considerable approach to 

 the Creodonta and primitive Carnivora as compared with the higher 

 artiodactyls. Dr. Matthew remarked on the desirability of instituting 

 more exact comparisons with the Eocene Artiodactyla as known princi- 

 pally from the European formations. 



PRIMITIVE AND CARNIVORE-LIKE CHARACTERS OF THE 

 MERYCOIDODONTID/E 



BY MALCOLM RUTHERFORD THORPE 



(Abstract) 



The type of this great group was described by Dr. Joseph Leidy in April. 

 1848. Subsequently he pointed out resemblances between Merycoidodon and 

 the peccary, the camel, and the wolf, and characterized this family as "rumi- 

 nating hogs,"' a name which has since clung to the whole group. 



There are some twenty-six genera and subgenera in the Merycoidodont fam- 

 ily, with about fourteen in the pre-Miocene, and it is the latter which are 

 herein considered. The Eocene and Oligocene species show a close similarity 

 in structure. The late Oligocene and early Miocene was a very important 



