CARBONIFEROUS ERA. 



109 



higher class of reptiles. In many localities these fishes 

 seemed to have swarmed in shoals, preying on shell-fish and 



1, Tarebratula ; 3 Productus ; 3, Spirifera; 4, Aviculopecten ; 5, Bellcrophon ; 6. Loxoneraa ; 



7, Murchisonia ; 6, Pleurotomaria ; 9, Euomphalus ; 10, Conularia ; 



11, Goniatites , 12, Orthoceratite. 



young coral-growth, and also on one another, as is amply 

 testified by their fossil droppings or coprolites, which crowd 

 the shales or muds of the carboniferous sea-bed. In rep- 

 tilian life, the forms are, on the whole, of loAvly organisation, 

 indicating, as it were, the recent advent of the order, an 



