CONNECTICUT RIVER SANDSTONE. 45 



here represented. Other specimens may be seen in the collection at Amherst. Dr. 

 Hitchcock has grouped the animal among the lizards, and given the name of Ortho- 

 dactylus floriferus to the species. 



PLATE XXIV. 



Fig. 1. An outline drawing of the figures of this plate was given with an article 

 on the Sandstone Fossils of the Connecticut River by Dr. Deane, published by the 

 American Academy in 1856. He there says: 



The impressions have remarkable symmetry. Four thick, tapering toes radiate 

 forward, and in the hind foot the impression of the heel is prolonged backward 

 to a considerable distance, and is broad and flattened. The fore foot is planted 

 a little in advance, and a little outward of the hind foot. 



These footprints agree nearly with the description given of the Macropterna 

 divaricans in the Ichnology of Massachusetts; an animal classed by Dr. Hitchcock 

 among the Batrachians. 



Fig. 2. The impressions here given, like the preceding, may be found, in outline, 

 upon a plate published by Dr. Deane in the Memoirs of the American Academy, in 1856. 

 He at that time remarked, in relation to it, as follows: 



The hind foot consists of three thick, pointed toes, widely spread, and a short 

 toe pointing inward. The heel is projected backward, and terminates in a 

 rounded extremity. The anterior foot is not conformable to the posterior. Four 

 toes, two pointing forward and outward, and two outward and backward. 



The species is, possibly, the same as described by Dr. Hitchcock under the name of 

 Xyphopeza triplex, and which he includes among lizards. His description of the 

 generic and specific characters would require that the hind toe of the hind foot should 

 extend backward rather than forward, as our plate shows it to do. 



As remarked by Dr. Hitchcock, the animal that made these footprints must have had 

 a body of considerable width, its feet having been placed more than two inches apart 

 in walking. 



