ICHNOLITES ; OR FOOTSTEPS ON STONE. 



555 



Chirotherium. — The foot-prints are of various kinds ; 

 some appear to have been produced by small reptiles and 

 crustaceans ; but the principal markings are referable to 

 some large quadruped, in which the fore-feet were much 

 smaller than the hinder (Lign. 125). From the supposed 

 resemblance of these imprints to the shape of the human 

 hand, the name of Chirotherium has been adopted to desig- 

 nate the animals which left these enigmatical " footsteps on 

 the sands of Time." Since the discovery of the bones of 



Lign. 125.— Foot-marks of an unknown animal on sandstone ; 



from hllbburghausen. 



Fij. 1.1. Impressions of the hinder feet of an unknown animal (provisionally 



named Chirotherium). 2. 2. Imprints of the fore feet of the same. 



(One-eighth the natural size.) 



gigantic Batrachians in the same strata, it has been sug- 

 gested that the footmarks were produced by some of the large 

 Labyrinthodons ; a conjecture highly probable, for the fore 

 and hind feet of many of the frog-tribe are as dissimilar 

 in size as those of the so-called Chirotherium; but till 

 the form of the feet of the extinct batrachians is known, 



