February 24, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



299 



We now recognize the order as an impor- 

 tant group in the Eocene, including a con- 

 siderable variety of primitive types, and 

 showing relationship on the one hand to 

 the Primates, on the other to the Creodonta. 

 Trigonolestes Cope, of the Lower Eocene, 

 is not related to Pantolestes but is a true 

 artiodactyl. 



Dr. R. S. Lull read a paper on 'Footprint 

 Intei-pretation' of which this abstract is 

 given. The first dinosaur was found in 

 the Connecticut Valley at New Windsor 

 in 1818 ; but not until the civil war was a 

 specimen brought to light of sufficient per- 

 fection to be considered in footprint inter- 

 pretation. Even then little was known 

 of the true nature of these forms other 

 than that they were saurians. Marsh's 

 restorations, based upon further material 

 discovered at New Windsor, gave tJie first 

 opportunity for a correlation of the osseous 

 remains with the footprints. The tracks 

 fall into three classes— truly bipedal forms; 

 those of bipedal gait and quadrupedal rest- 

 ing posture; and finally true quadrupeds. 



Of the first group the track genus An- 

 chisauripus may be correlated with the 

 family of Dinosauria known as the An- 

 chisaurida^; Gigandipus has resemblances 

 to Allosaurus, though a somewhat smaller 

 form having a sinuous tail trace ; in Oral- 

 lator the feet are very small, with limbs of 

 great px'oportionate length, representing a 

 group of aberrant eompsognathoid dino- 

 saurs probably of habits similar to the 

 wading birds. These genera were all 

 Theropoda, or carnivorous dinosaurs. 

 Euhrontes includes truly bipedal forms, 

 large, bluntly clawed, probably of herbiv- 

 orous habits; hence a predentate dinosaur. 



The occasionally quadrupedal creatures 

 were as truly bipedal types as those of the 

 first group while moving, but always 

 brought the hands in contact with the 

 ground while resting. The most impor- 

 tant genus is Anomoepus, an herbivorous 



dinosaur whose proportions suggest Hypsi- 

 lophodon; while Otozoum, a huge creature 

 with a plantigrade foot, having a shelf-like 

 extension of skin around it presumably to 

 support the great weight of the animal in 

 soft mud, has no counterpart among known 

 dinosaurs; and one can form no conception 

 of its probable appearance. Except for 

 its bipedal gait it presents some interesting 

 points of comparison with Ghirotherium of 

 the Bunter. 



Quite a host of quadrupedal tracks are 

 known which must include both Amphibia 

 and Reptilia, but one genus only, Batra- 

 chopus, can with any degree of certainty 

 be correlated with known types. Stegomus 

 longipes, a small Aetiosaur from Long- 

 meadow, Mass., seems to show proportions, 

 size and length of limb which would make 

 its relationship with Batracliopus fairly 

 assured. In this track genus the stride is 

 extremely long and the trackway narrow, 

 implying a form with high stilted limbs 

 and a gait like a cursorial mammal. 



Thus far only can we at present interpret 

 fossil footprints with any degree of assur- 

 ance. 



Dr. C. R. Eastman sent a paper entitled 

 'Fossil Bird Remains from Ai'missan.' 

 This papei", which is in course of publica- 

 tion by the Carnegie Museum, discusses the 

 paleontological history of gallinaceous 

 birds, and offers a description of a new 

 species of Taoperdix, a form related to ex- 

 isting pheasants, and noteworthy as ap- 

 pearing as early as the Upper Eocene. 

 From the type species it differs chiefly in 

 the relative proportions of mandible and 

 wing-bones. The original is preserved in 

 the Carnegie IMuseum at Pittsburgh, and 

 has been courteously loaned by Dr. W. J. 

 Holland. 



Also a paper on ' Anaximander, Earliest 

 precursor of Darwin.' The doctrine of 

 evolution, far from being a purely modem 

 conception, was anticipated in its essential 



