Roy Lee Moodie

“ The question of the origin of land vertebrates, which has appealed so strongly to students of fossil Amphibia, is by no means solved from the material furnished by the Coal Measures of North America. The Amphibia are, however, well known from several localities in the Coal Measures of this continent, where skeletons have been recovered which are sufficiently well preserved to afford a fair knowledge of their anatomy. ”

“ It is impossible to determine positively to what microsaurian species the mandible belongs, but it may, for the present, be associated with Erpetosaurus tabulatus Cope on account of its size and the character of its sculpture. This is the first and almost the only known example of a mandible of an American microsaurian. The form of the jaw is perfectly preserved, although the condition of the articular surface can not be determined.
The proportions of the mandible, as maybe judged from the table of measurements, are rather stout and the teeth are strong and numerous. ”

“ Little can be said of the vertebral column, since only the molds of a few vertebræ remain, and these are so obscured by a closely adherent pellicle of carbonaceous material that their form can not be distinctly discerned. They are high, with relatively broad neural spines. There are no ribs preserved. The pelvis is obscured, but it is possible to determine the presence of an elongate ilium and an ischium. The leg of the left side is the best preserved of all the elements, and it is to this that our attention will be confined. ”

“ A rather interesting parallel, though of no phylogenetic significance, can be drawn between the Amphibia of the North American Coal Measures and the reptiles of to-day. The snakes are represented by the limbless, snake-like forms, such as Ptyonius and Phlegethontia. The lizards find their counterpart in the Hylonomidæ and the Tuditanidæ. No known characters of these animals tend to ally them directly with any known group of fishes, except in the most general way. ”

“ The skull is wanting. The belly was very broad and strongly protected by broad, long scutes arranged en chevron. The scutes are close together and form a compact ventral armor for the animal. The fore limb is very weak. The humerus is represented by its distal end only. The radius and ulna are very short and weakly developed in comparison to the size of the animal. The limbs could not have supported the animal on land and served, probably, merely as organs of equilibration, for the animal was undoubtedly aquatic. The fingers are not all preserved and there is no carpus. ”

“ There are 10 vertebræ from the anterior end to the sacrum preserved in place, and none of them supports a rib, nor are there any ribs visible anywhere on the block of shale. I suspect that they exist on more anterior vertebræ, or may have been displaced to a more anterior position than they normally occupy. The abdominal chevrons are more anterior in position than are those of the I. ohiensis. The hind legs are longer than in that species; in this one the femur equals 7.5 vertebral centra in length. The external digit, on the other hand, while bearing 5 phalanges, is distinctly shorter. ”

“ The skull especially has a shape which is strikingly frog-like, and the long hind limbs lend further likeness to the tailless forms. Pelion may have been a jumping creature, if we may judge from its long hind legs. Wyman and Cope have both called attention to the frog-like appearance of the specimen, and this is apparent at the first glance. It is probable that the resemblance has some significance as to the ancestry of the Salientia, and it may indicate the first step in the origin of the tailless Amphibia. ”

“ Among the Paleozoic Amphibia from Nova Scotia as described by Dawson and Owen (193, 201, 485) scales are well developed and frequent, although the details as to their occurrence on the bodies of the animals are still unknown, since the Nova Scotian species are all based on very fragmentary remains. Dawson (208, p. 34) has given a detailed discussion of the discovery and anatomy of the various types of scales possessed by the species from the Coal Measures of Nova Scotia. Suffice it to say here that none of the scales appear to be bony, but have a cuticular appearance with concentric markings. ”

“ The cervical and caudal ribs are shorter than the dorsal series. The branchiosaurian rib is composed almost entirely of perichondral ossification. It presents the same condition as does the humerus of the cow embryo of 2 to 3 inches in length. The ribs of the branchiosaurs are identical in every way with the ribs of modern salamanders and form one of the strong arguments in favor of the relationship of the Branchiosauria to the Caudata. Among the Microsauria the ribs are always long, slender, curved, and intercentral. They may be either single or double headed, but usually the former. ”

“ The impression of the larger animal (No. 803, Yale University Museum) , which is probably an adult, presents the following elements: the entire skull, both humeri, impressions of posterior and anterior ventral armature, portions of the alimentary canal, one femur, portions of a fibula and tibia, and the entire impression of the tail, on which, as in Micrerpeton caudatum, there occur two definite dark lines, one beginning at the tip of the tail and running obliquely along the tail to where the impression is broken at the anal region ”

“ A small rounded pubis is present in some of the later forms of Amphibia; it is, however, totally absent from the Coal Measures species. The condition of the pelvis is paralleled by the partially grown pelvis of mammalian embryos in which the elements ossify in the order of ilium, ischium, and pubis. The ilium is always the larger of the elements. ”

“ The genus Stegops is distinct from Eoserpeton in the smaller size of the prosquamosal, in the broadly rounded muzzle, in the larger and more posteriorly placed orbits, and in the presence of an intertemporal bone, or at least in the elongate character of the postorbital if the intertemporal is not present. The species on which the genus Eoserpeton is based was first described by Cope as Ceraterpeton ten n iconic. ”

“ The Microsauria (458) are exceedingly interesting in possessing a very peculiar type of lateral-line system. It is known in a few forms and in one specimen especially well (Erpetosaurus tabulatus) (fig. 22, G) . In this species, which is represented by a single imperfect skull, there are evidences of a nearly complete lateral-line system of canals and pits. The occipital cross-commissure is represented on the posterior border of the skull by a row of elongate pits such as Andrews described for Ceraterpeton (8) . I fail to find in American species the pores described by Andrews. ”

“ The second character, "without limbs," is not good. Species of Œstocephalus, Ptyonius, Molgophis all possess limbs; and doubtless Ophiderpeton will be found to possess limbs also, since it has a well-developed pectoral girdle. The limbs in all of these genera are small. The third character, "apparently without pectoral and pelvic girdles," is not at all a good character, since nearly every specimen of some species and almost all species show evidences of pectoral girdles and a few exhibit pelvic girdles. ”

“ This genus differs from all those with enlarged and sculptured neural spines, and from those with abdominal scutes. It is equally distinct from those without ribs, abdominal rods, or limbs. It is possible that some of the species referred to Tuditanus, in which these parts are unknown, may belong to it, or that it may be established on a small species of Leptophractus, a genus known only as yet from the skull. With our present imperfect knowledge of the Linton forms it seems best to refer I. ohiensis and I. platypus to this distinct genus, Ichthycanthus. ”

“ An osseous scapula is usually present, resembling the scapula of modern salamanders, in that it was largely embedded in cartilage. The position of the pectoral girdle is largely a matter of doubt, especially for the American species. After death and before fossilization the girdle was always moved by post-mortem shifting, so that its exact relation to the ribs and vertebral column is still in doubt. Credner (186) has restored the pectoral girdle close behind the head, which would cause an amount of rigidity in the body which probably did not exist. ”

“ The dentary bone appears to have been attached by suture to the articular and angular, as its free margin has very much of the outline of that suture in Amphiuma and lizards. The coronoid process would also seem to be a part of the same bone as in Amphiuma and Menopema, and not composed of the coronoid bone as in lizards. It rises immediately behind the last tooth, and displays no suture. ”

“ The bones of the middle of the skull (that is, the parietals, frontals, premaxillæ, nasals, and postparietals) are of the normal form and only show an unusual difference in that they are large in the inverse order. The pineal foramen lies in the anterior third of the parietals; that is the primitive condition which occurs in the young forms of the Branchiosauridæ. The nostrils are inclosed by the premaxillæ in front, in the median line by the nasals and laterally by the maxillæ. ”

“ Body long, serpentine, a few species apparently limbless, ribless, and with abdominal armature lacking. Vertebræ elongate, neural and hæmal spines short or absent. Ribs long, heavy, and broad. The vertebræ seem to bear the characteristic marks of the family. One species has the skeleton reduced to a lanceolate skull and a string of about 50 slender vertebræ, all the rest of the skeleton being absent. The family is very poorly known, but was apparently of wide distribution in North America and confined to this continent. The representatives of the group are known from Iowa, Illinois, and Ohio. ”

“ These long, curved ribs undoubtedly exclude Amphibamus from the Branchiosauria and indicate its close affinities with the Microsauria. The genus Pelion has also been referred to this order on purely negative evidence (642, p. 375) . This genus is excluded from the Branchiosauria by the well-ossified condition of the limb bones, in which the endochondral ossification is seen to be well developed, a condition not found, so far, among the true Branchiosauria. The form of the head and the elongate hind limb would also tend to exclude the genus from the Branchiosauria. ”