The Coming of Vertebrates and Rise of Fishes 



ture, habits, and development liave been care- 

 fully studied with the hope that they might 

 throw light on the history of the past, and 

 particularly on the origin and development of 

 the amphibians. 



The lung-fishes of to-day are but the scat- 

 tered remnants of a group once abundant and 

 widely distributed, which comprised such huge 

 forms as Dinichthys and Titanichthys, whose 

 remains occur in the Upper Devonian ^ of 

 Ohio. Some fine specimens have been found 

 in the vicinity of Cleveland, some near Berea, 

 Ohio, but probably the greatest number have 

 been obtained from Lorain County. These 

 fishes were from ten to twenty -five feet long, 

 with the head and front protected by thick, 

 bony plates, although the back portion seems 

 to have been quite naked, as no traces even of 

 scales have been found ; and so far as outside 

 appearance goes, these fishes must have looked 

 something like enormous catfishes, minus the 

 spines. The powerful jaws were armed with 

 teeth for tearing and cutting, so that their 



* This has been called Lower Carboniferous by some geologists. 



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