l8 NATURE STUDY. 



composed of dense bony tissue, and are turned up anterior- 

 ly like sled runners, the extremities of both jaws meeting 

 to form one great triangular tooth which interlocked with 

 two in the upper jaw, seven inches in length and more 

 than three inches wide. It is apparent from the structure 

 of these jaws that they could easily embrace in their grasp 

 the body of a man — perhaps of a horse — and as they were, 

 doubtless, moved bj^ muscles of corresponding power, they 

 could crush such a body as we would crush an egg-shell. 



" ' Perhaps the bony shields worn b}' Dinichthys were 

 for the protection of the wearers against the powerful jaws 

 of their own kin. But it is ver}- improbable that the spe- 

 cies was, to any degree, self-devouring; for the double rea- 

 son that cannibalism is an offence against a far-reaching 

 law of nature, and the carcasses of even the younger indi- 

 viduals of Dinichthys must have been very hard to crack, 

 even for the all-embracing and massive jaws of their par- 

 ents and adult relatives.' 



"At least one hundred specimens have been found in 

 the rocks of the Devonian time, which shows that the 

 Dinichthys greatly exceeds in numbers any other of its 

 contemporary relations. To Ohio belongs the honor of 

 first giving to the world its discovery. This creature was 

 eminently carnivorous, and from the extraordinar}- devel- 

 opment of its dental apparatus, it must have fed upon large 

 and resistive animals. 



"Prof. Newberry secured for Columbia College, School 

 of ]\Iines, the fine specimen discovered by Mr. Hertzer, 

 where it occupies a place of unique and distinctive inter- 

 est." 



What is the little tribe of Birds, or that of Quadrupeds, compared 

 with them? All the animal species, all the various forms of |life, 

 brought face to face with this one family, disappear and are as 

 nothing. Put the world on one side, and on the other the Insect 

 World ; the latter has the advantage. — Michelet. 



