﻿498 3IPw. A. W. CLATDEX OX FOOTPECS-IS ZN' THE [Xov. I908, 



footprints of an Amphibian or Eeptilian type, and after I had shown 

 this to the members of the Club, two more pairs of prints, of a 

 similar character, were found by one of the students. 



A few days later I made a more careful search than had been 

 possible on the former occasion, and found numerous less perfect 

 marks apparently due to a larger animal, and a track consisting of 

 30 pairs of footprints crossing a large slab. 



As these sandstones are locally the base of the whole Xew Eed 

 Series, and are closely related to the volcanic rocks and breccias 

 usually classed as Permian, the occurrence of organic records among 

 them assumes a greater interest than would have been the case 

 if they had been well up in the Trias. They are certainly far 

 below the beds in which Dr. Johnston-Lavis found his Lahyria- 

 thodon^ and those in which Mr. Whitaker discovered a jaw of 

 Hyperodapedon.^ 



It seems best, therefore, to announce the fact at once, without 

 waiting to accumulate more material. 



Five specimens have been secured, and three of them. A, E, &. C. 

 may well have been made by the same individual. Specimen A 

 shows detached prints, some parts of the track having been 

 obliterated. They are sufficient to prove that the animal had three 

 large toes and one small one, and was therefore not very different 

 from the creature which made the more perfect tracks to be 

 described later on. The tracks agreed in size with two other piints. 

 B & C, which do not show sufficient detail to tell much about the 

 creature that made them. In both cases the sand was evidentlv 

 loose, and rather too dry to give a good impression : and in more 

 than one print it is possible to see plainly where the sand broke 

 loose at the side of the hole, and flowed into it as the animal lifted 

 its foot. In both specimens the fore and hind feet seem to have 

 been of much the same size, and to have sunk almost equally deeply 

 into the sand. They agree also in a peculiar way : the prints of 

 the right feet are much deeper than those of the left. One of the 

 limbs of the left side, apparently the fore Umb, appears to have 

 been carried in such a way that it only touched the ground once, 

 and then quite gently, although the slabs show several places where 

 it should have been impressed. The one gentle touch happens to 

 have left faint indications of four toes, and is the only print in 

 which they are preserved at all. The length of the stride varies 

 from a maximum of 30 to a minimum of 22 centimetres. 



The other two slabs, D & E, show prints which, as the measure- 

 ments suggest, must have been made b}- smaller and different indi- 

 viduals, The first found was D, which shows five or six pairs of 

 footmarks, two of which are on its extreme edge. 



The animal was digitigrade, neither manus nor pes showing any 

 sign of a foot-pad. The length of stride is 12 centimetres ; and, 

 measuring from the centre of each print to the median line, the 

 distance is in all cases about 3 cm. The prints of the manus, 



- Quart. Joum. Geol. Soc. vol. xxxii (1876) p. 274. 

 2 Ibid. vol. xxT (1S69) p. 152. 



