FAUNA LOWER KEUPER SANDSTONE. 19 



something similar in form to ours. (See Plate II., Figs. 

 1 and 2.) Now if we refer to the Storeton print and 

 imagine the outer digits becoming functionless and 

 aborted, the three inner ones would consequently probably 

 become more divergent, and we should have a footprint 

 somewhat of the character of the Newton Nottage ones. 

 The dolomitic conglomerate is supposed to be rather 

 higher in the series than the Storeton footprint bed. The 

 authorities of the Cardiff: Museum have kindly had taken 

 for me a photograph of the Newton Nottage footprint, of 

 which Plate II., fig. 2 is a reproduction. 



Several years ago the Rev. P. B. Brodie pointed out 

 to me in his own collection, and in that of the Warwick 

 Museum, several instances of impressions in slabs bearing 

 the Cheirotherium footprints of what he believed to be 

 the hind quarters of the animal, as if it had squatted down 

 on the ground. At that time it was generally considered 

 that the Labyrinthodont origin of the footprints was quite 

 settled. An animal with a short thick tail could hardly 

 have done this, and I was rather inclined to think that the 

 markings might have been made by the anterior portion 

 of the under surface of the body, as I noticed that Sala- 

 manders and Newts often stopped suddenly and rested 

 the front portion of the body at once on the ground. 

 However, in his " Outlines of Vertebrate Palaeontology," 

 Dr. Arthur Smith Woodward, when describing the Dino- 

 saurian skeleton (page 198), and speaking of the extension 

 of the pubes and the ischia, says — " The symphysis is in 

 " both cases much extended, evidently to serve as a kind 

 "of 'foot' when the animal rested on its hind quarters. 

 " Certain impressions in the Triassic Sandstones of Con- 

 " necticut suggest this idea." He was evidently unaware 

 of similar impressions nearer home. It certainly would 

 render a sitting posture much more easy for an animal 



