On a Cheirotherian Footprint from the Base of the Keuper Sandstone of Daresbury, Cheshire

Abstract

T he specimen figured in Plate III. was found in the Lower Keuper, at Daresbury Quarry, near Weston Point, Cheshire, a district which is rich in Cheirotherian footprints. The specimen was discovered by Mr. J. Webster Kirkham, one of my old pupils at Owens College, who has become an indefatigable worker amongst the footprints of the Cheshire district. It is obviously a reptilian footprint, but differs from all that I have hitherto seen in Great Britain in being distinctly that of a scaly animal. The form of the footprint differs from that of the Common Cheirotherium, which is found associated with it, in being more quadrate, and in the separated toe being less recurved, as well as approaching nearer to the other toes. In its general form it reminds us strongly of the footprints found by Dr. King in the Carboniferous beds of Pennsylvania. This resemblance is further shown in the fact that the specimen only displays four toes, as is the case with the anterior foot of the American specimens, though possibly the small projection on the left hand of the footprint opposite the thumb may be the base of a fifth toe, partly obliterated by another footprint of the same creature, which has been impressed upon it. The arrangement of the scales corresponds very closely with that seen in the foot of the Alligator. Many of them run across the foot in oblique lines, as is common amongst living Crocodiles, leaving no room for doubt that they represent true