Erwin Hinckly Barbour

“ Intimately associated with the eurypterids were considerable amounts of actual plant tissue, preserved as such since Carboniferous times. It still retains its pliability, can be stripped from the shale, floated on glass slips, and made into permanent mounts. There are now about one hundred of these mounts in our collection. The preservation of actual plant tissue in such amounts and in large pieces is quite unique. The tissue is of a bright, transparent orange color. It is capable of close study, and photomicrographic reproductions of the cell structure are readily obtainable. ”

“ As compared with well-known eurypterids, those of Nebraska are small, the average being a trifle over two inches in length, while the largest, as far as known, do not equal three inches. Whether these represent adult or immature forms, is not apparent. They may be immature forms. However, since no evidences of larger individuals have presented themselves, it may be that this is a group of diminutive eurypterids. Average eurypterids are five to ten times as large. ”

“ Nowhere apparently are eurypterids found in such variety and in such excellent preservation as in New York State, yet the Nebraska beds bid fair to make an unusual showing numerically.
The eurypterid shales of Nebraska, as far as known, outcrop one mile south of Peru, in the Coal Measure bluffs facing the Missouri River. The alternating limestone and shale in the bluffs at the edge of the town change rapidly to shale, which becomes increasingly arenaceous and merges finally into massive sand some forty to fifty feet thick about a mile south of Peru. ”