No. 522] .4 CABBOXIFEBOUS SALAMAXDEK 



a lot of specimens loaned the writer for study by Yale 

 Museum, on two excellently preserved examples of the 

 Branchiosauria, apparently adult, molds and impressions 

 of what appeared at first sight to be intestines. Further 

 study showed that in the smaller specimen there was 

 preserved the entire alimentary canal and the other 

 specimen had the alimentary tract approximately com- 

 plete. There are no traces of branchiae to be observed in 

 either specimen. 



The species which these forms represent is unknown 

 and the writer has accordingly proposed for them, in 

 another place, the name Eumicrerpeton parvum, new 

 genus and species, and has regarded them as representa- 

 tives of the family Branchiosaurida 3 . The smaller speci- 

 men has the more completely preserved canal of the two 

 and the description given below will apply mainly to that 

 specimen. 



The nodule which contains this interesting little fossil 

 measures two and a quarter inches by two inches and the 

 fossil salamander occurs as nearly as possible in the 

 center of the nodule (Fig. 4). The white kaolin which 

 has usually replaced the bones in the Mazon Creek fossils 

 has nearly all become eroded, only that of the right hu- 

 merus remaining. The animal is of course preserved on 

 its back. 



If it were not for the fact that the oesophagus became 

 loosened and dropped down from its place shortly after 

 death, the alimentary canal would be in place and would 

 immediately recall a freshly dissected specimen of a 

 recent salamander. The anterior end of the oesophagus 

 lies obliquely across the chest region with its tip pointing 

 slightly downward. The length of the oesophagus proper 

 is only about three millimeters. The entire animal meas- 

 ures but thirty millimeters in full length from the snout 

 to the tip of the tail, the form of which is clearly pre- 

 served (Fig. 1). 



The oesophagus, as it is preserved, lies in a semi-sig- 

 moid curve with the convexity anterior. It enters the 



