10 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



A five-toed animal frequently makes a print in which 

 but four toes are recognisable, but the circumstances 

 under which a four-toed foot could make an additional 

 print of one toe would be very exceptional and would be 

 readily detected. 



Another point may be noticed. The Labyrinthodon 

 was a tailed Amphibian. In a few experiments I have 

 made with the common water newt and the European 

 Salamander, they always left a track made by their tails 

 when walking over a soft surface. No such tail is asso- 

 ciated, as far as I have seen, with these footprints. The 

 impression of something that may have been a tail of an 

 animal is to be seen on a slab in the British Museum, 

 which is reproduced in Mr. Morton's Geology of 

 Liverpool.* Rather smaller but similar markings are 

 also shown on a slab at Warwick. The British Museum 

 example shows distinctly rows of scales, and if the impres- 

 sion of a tail, it must have been made when the animal 

 was stationary. It is uncertain, however, at present 

 whether these are of animal or vegetable origin. 



If, then, the footprints known as Chedrotherium are 

 not Labyrinthoait, where are those of the Labj^rinthodon ? 

 I cannot answer the question, but I do not see that it 

 affects the case very much. At the same time I feel an 

 amount of disappointment that such an interesting group 

 of animals should not have left any distinct evidence of 

 their presence here. 



There is plenty of room both for research and specu- 

 lation here, as it is hardly likely that the Amphibia were 

 absent altogether ; but the brilliant imaginations of more 

 than one artist and writer have failed to fill the gap 

 satisfactorily. We have a few small, broad, fleshy foot- 



* Appendix, p. 300, 'plate xxii. 



