406 JR. S. Lull — Life of the Connecticut Trias. 



any of these gymnosperms were especially large, but on the 

 contrary rather dwarfish, the conifers bearing the aspects now 

 found on sandy barrens and arid tracts. The calamites had 

 given place to true equiseta, which were represented by forms 

 that were gigantic in comparison with modern types. . . . 



" In the closing stages of the period, the Rhsetic epoch and 

 its equivalents, there seems to have been much amelioration of 

 the previous hostile conditions and a much ampler develop- 

 ment of the flora. The larger part of the known American 

 fossils belong to this stage. In favored portions of the Newark 

 series from Connecticut to North Carolina, plant remains 

 occur, and in the coal-beds of the latter state and of Virginia, 

 the flora is more amply represented." 



The Fauna. 



In both vertebrate and invertebrate relics the proportion of 

 known fossils to footprints is much the same, the former being 

 of such extreme rarity as to warrant special mention of practi- 

 cally every find. 



Invertebrates. 

 Of the actual fossils the species represented are but four, — 

 two known species of molluscs, a small phyllopod crustacean, 

 Estheria sp., and a single insect species of which fortunately 

 there are numerous examples, all, however, from three or four 

 localities in the neighborhood of Turners Falls, Mass., and 

 near Middletown, Conn., though whether the latter locality 

 yields the same form as that at Turners Falls is unknown. 

 A brief summary of the invertebrate species follows : 

 Of the phylum Arthropoda the Class Hexapoda is repre- 

 sented by the one known species Mormolucoides articulatus 

 Hitchcock. This creature was first described by Hitchcock in 

 1858 as a crustacean and its true relationships were discovered 

 by J. D. Dana, to whom Hitchcock sent specimens for examin- 

 ation. Dana, in a postscript to his letter reporting on the 

 insect, says : " The larve was probably the larve of a neuropter- 

 ous insect, which often has false legs along the abdomen ; but, 

 if so, it is surprising that there are no legs to the corselet, 

 neuropterous larves having three pairs." This insect was 

 afterwards studied by Scudder, who published an elaborate 

 monograph amplifying the previous descriptions. It remained, 

 however, for the present writer to have the good fortune to 

 find upon a single individual among many impressed upon the 

 shale, well-preserved remains of the antennae and limbs which 

 served still further to verify the taxonomic conclusions of 

 Dana. These are described in detail in the memoir from 

 which this extract is made. The further placing of this insect 



