CLASSIFICATION OF FISHES. 



463 



fish, Molacanthus Pallasii (Fig. 427), which occur in the 

 North Atlantic. 



Fig. 426. Orthagoriscus oblntw/us, young, natural 

 size. After Harting. 



i. 427. Mola- 

 canthus Pallasii, 

 half grown, natural 

 sizo. After Put- 



CLASS III. PISCES. 



Aquatic Vertebrates with a movable lower jaw, a cartilaginous or 

 osseous skeleton, with paired and unpaired fins supported by fin rays ; 

 no sternum; usually covered with scales; breathing by gills. Heart 

 with, a single ventricle and auricle. Mostly oviparous. 



Subclass I. Masmdbranchii. Skeleton cartilaginous ; skull without 

 membrane bones, five to seven pairs of gill-sacs and gill- 

 openings ; no opercular bones ; tail heterocercal ; scales 

 placoid ; heart with a pulsating aortic bulb ; optic nerves 

 forming a chiasma ; intestine with a spiral valve ; both 

 oviparous and viviparous. 



Order 1. Plagiostomi (Selache, Lamna, Raia). 

 Order 2. Holocephili (Cliimsera). 



Subclass II. Ganoidei. Skeleton cartilaginous or ossified ; skull with 

 plate-like membrane bones ; one pair of gill-openings cov- 

 ered by opercular bones ; skin usually with cycloid or gan- 

 oid scales ; air-bladder with a pneumatic duct ; embryos or 

 young sometimes with external gills ; chiasma of the optic 

 nerves ; intestine with a spiral valve ; development, so far 

 as known, much as in the sharks, and in some respects like 

 the bony fishes ; the living forms oviparous. 



Order \. Chondror/anoidei (Acipenser). 

 Order 2. Dipnoi (Ceratodus, Lepidosiren). 



