This lithograph of a Central Valley brownstone slab shows the bird-like tracks imprinted in the rock (from an 1858 book by Edward Hitchcock.

in his 1806 paper: "...we must conclude that for many ages, if not from the creation, things have remained substantially as they now are + "' The time span allotted to earth processes was derived from what was then widely regarded as the most definitive account of the Earth's creation: the Book of Genesis. Based on elaborate genealogical studies of individuals mentioned in the Bible, l7th-century Irish bishop James Ussher had calculated that the Earth was created on October 24, 4004 Be at nine in the mornings This date was accepted by most early 19th-century geologists, including Silliman. He described the formation of the plain on which New Haven is situated as a product of "the long progress of 6000 years" (again from his 1806 study).' And indeed, from the human point of view, 6000 years is a long time.

Evidence was accumulating, however, that raised questions about a strict Biblical interpretation of geology. In the year 1802, a discovery was made that helped sow a few seeds of doubt in the minds of Connecticut's residents concerning Bishop Ussher's calculations. One Pliny Moody was plowing his father's field in South Hadley, in the Massachusetts portion of the Central Valley, when he came upon a piece of brownstone with some unusual imprints. These imprints looked remarkably like the footprints of a huge bird. What Moody had discovered, although he didn't know it, was the first fossil evidence of a dinosaur found in the New World. Intrigued by his find, Moody fashioned the stone into his front doorstep.

In the years that followed, more footprints were discovered in the brownstone throughout the Central Valley in both Massachusetts and Connecticut. And in 1818, fossil bones of a creature about six feet long were uncovered in East Windsor, Connecticut. (These bones are now identified as belonging to a Yaleosaurus, a small dinosaur named for the arms mater of many early Connecticut geologists.) These tracks and bones were the source of much debate in the parlor, pulpit, and classroom. Moody himself thought they were the imprint of Noah's raven. Another theory attributed the tracks to the passage of terrible turkeys across the land.

The first scientific study of the tracks was by the Reverend Edward Hitchcock, of Glacial Lake Hitchcock fame. He followed up rumors and

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