JR. L. Moodie — Vertebrate Footprints. 31 



Art. IV. — Vertebrate Footprints in the Lower Permian 

 of Kansas ; by Koy L. Moodie. 



Among other objects of interest in Baker University Museum 

 at Baldwin, Kansas, of which may be mentioned a Silurian 

 starfish belonging to the modern order Phanerozonia, and a 

 Dakota Cretaceous turtle, there are some slabs of soft lime 

 rock or gypsum which contain a series of very interesting 

 footprints.' Footprints are so rare in the Permian of Kansas 

 that every occurrence is to be regarded with interest. The 

 present footprints, if properly interpreted, will prove of unu- 

 sual interest to paleontologists on account of the lack of 

 knowledge of the group of animals which these footprints seem 

 to indicate. There are several possibilities for the footprints, 

 the theropod dinosaurs, the parasuchians or amphibians. 



The single footprint here figured was accompanied in the 

 quarry by many others and it is hoped that an exploration of 

 the deposit may reveal other objects of interest. The quarry 

 lies two miles northwest of Eureka, Greenwood County, Kan- 

 sas, and was discovered in 1902 by Dr. C. S. Parmenter of 

 Baker University, to whom I owe the privilege of describing 

 these interesting relics. The exploration was carried on under 

 difficulties since the owner of the land was highly suspicious of 

 the value of the slabs containing the footprints, which, conse- 

 quently, had to be secured under cover of darkness, and thus 

 rendered intelligent exploration impossible. The deposit. 

 Dr. Parmenter tells me, is a thin uniform layer of soft, white 

 rock in the flint hills, which, according to the explorations of 

 the Kansas Geological Survey, occur on the line between the 

 Upper Pennsylvanian and Lower Permian. 



There are two slabs containing the impressions, one of them 

 exhibiting two footprints which seem to be of the same series. 

 The slab figured also shows impressions of some of the animals' 

 activities, but just what I cannot determine. The impressions 

 are firmly, and save for subsequent erosion which has obscured 

 them somewhat, sharply defined in the soft rock, which formed 

 the mud on the shore of the bayou or lake in Permian times, 

 and along which the animal walked, leaving only his footprints. 

 It is to be regretted that the skeletal elements of this Permian 

 vertebrate are still lacking, but it is to be confidently expected 

 that future explorations will reveal something of the nature of 

 the animal which made these footprints. 



The nature of the foot impression corresponds very closely 

 with that of an undoubted theropod dinosaur, but to say that 

 the impression is a dinosaur footprint is further than the writer 



