146 



DINOSAURS OK NORTH AMERICA. 



PART- I. 



TRIASSIC DINOSAURS. 



THEROPODA. 



The remains of dinosaurs first discovered in this country were found 

 in the Triassic sandstone of the Connecticut Valley, so famous for its 

 fossil footprints, many of which were long supposed to have been made 

 by birds. It is a remarkable fact that the first discovery in this sand- 

 stone was that of the skeleton of a true dinosaur, found in East Wind- 

 sor, Conn., in 1818, many years before the first footprints were recorded. 

 This discovery was announced in the American Journal of Science for 

 November, 1820, and later numbers contain descriptions of the remains, 

 some of which are now preserved in the museum of Yale University. 



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Fin. 2. — Slab of Connecticut River sandstone: allowing footprints of two dinosaurs on a surface 

 marked by raindrop impressions. One-tenth natural size. Triassic. Massachusetts. 



When the footprints in the Connecticut sandstone first attracted 

 attention, in 1835, many of these impressions resembled so closely 

 those made by birds that they were from the first attributed to that 

 class, and for many years it was not seriously questioned that all the 

 three-toed impressions, even the most gigantic, were really the foot- 

 prints of birds. The literature on this subject is very extensive, but 

 its value to science has been seriously impaired by the discovery oi 

 dinosaurian remains in various parts of the world, which prove that 

 many of these reptiles were remarkably bird-like and that their tracks 

 could not be distinguished from those of birds. 



