212 PALEOZOIC FISHES OF NORTH AMERICA. 
at the present time—and afterward over the cannel was formed a mass of 
peat, which has now become a stratum of cubical coal seven feet in thickness. 
In the Linton cannel are buried fragments or entire individuals of all 
the inhabitants of this body of water which had hard parts—bones, scales, 
spines, or teeth—capable of preservation. Hence we here get a locally 
complete picture of the life of the Carboniferous age, and we find it to be 
unexpectedly rich and varied. In that age fishes and amphibians were the 
highest forms of animal life, and the amphibians were comparatively new- 
comers on the earth’s surface. Yet they had multiplied and differentiated 
until this little pool contained millions of them, varying in length from six 
inches to ten feet and curiously diversified in their forms, their scales and 
spines and in the ornamentation of their enamel-covered heads.’ 
The following is a list of the fishes which have been up to the present 
time found at Linton. They are described in the Paleontology of Ohio: 
Celacanthus robustus, Newb. 
elegans, Newb. 
ornatus, Newb. 
Rhizodus angustus (teeth), Newb. 
lancifer (teeth), Newb. 
quadratus (scales), Newb. 
occidentalis (scales), Newb. 
Orthacanthus arcuatus, Newb. 
Paleoniscus (Llonichthys) peltigerus, Newb. 
ELwrylepis tuberculatus, Newb. 
corrugatus, Newb. gracilis, Newb. 
ovoideus, Newb. Compsacanthus levis, Newb. 
insculptus, Newb. Diplodus compressus, Newb. 
ornatissimus, Newb. latus, Newb. 
granulatus, Newb. gracilis, Newb. 
minimus, Newb. Ctenodus serratus, Newb. 
striolatus, Newb. reticulatus, Newb. 
lineatus, Newb. Ohioensis, Cope. 
macrops, Newb. 
The most striking feature in this group is formed by the species of 
Eurylepis. These were beautiful little Paleeoniscoid fishes, clothed in pol- 
ished armor of smooth or ornamented scales, of which those on the sides are 
much higher than long; the head bones are also highly ornamented with 
tubercles, granulations, or thread-lines. They vary in length from one to 
five inches, and, coated as they frequently are with a brilliant film of 
pyrites, they appear as though wrought in gold upon a jet-black ground; 
the most beautiful of all fossil fishes. 
' These amphibians all belong to Owen’s group of the Ganocephala, so named from the enameled 
plates by which their heads were covered. Their bodies were generally protected by scales or spines 
of various kinds. In these characters as well as in size they surpassed the amphibians of the present 
day—frogs, toads, and salamanders—which are all small, and are clothed in a soft and naked skin. 
