OUR FACE FROM FISH TO MAN 



been successfully restudied by Professor D. M. S. 

 Watson of University College, London, in the 

 light of his extensive knowledge of later fossil 

 amphibians. Under his keen scrutiny these oldest 

 known land vertebrates have yielded many facts 

 of far-reaching significance. He has shown that 

 in certain of these forms the shoulder-girdle was 



Fig. 15. One of the Most Primitive Known Amphibians from 



THE Lower Carboniferous of England (Restoration 



AFTER Watson's Data). 



For details, see p. xv. 



still attached to the skull by a bony plate, as it is 

 in typical fishes, and that the bony plates of the 

 shoulder-girdle were still readily identifiable with 

 those of fishes, whereas in later types these plates 

 became highly modified. 



The bony mask covering the face and braincase 

 of these oldest tetrapods ' is of the greatest interest 

 in the present connection, for in it we find the 

 starting-point for everyone of the twenty-eight 



' A name often applied to the oldest four-footed land-living forms, 

 both amphibians and reptiles. 



28 



