90 EXTINCT MONSTERS 



Like the reptiles of to-day, modern amphibians have no fixed 

 type of external form. Some suggest a likeness to turtles and 

 tortoises ; others suggest in shape the true snakes ; another 

 group, represented by newts and salamanders, suggests a resem- 

 blance to the lizards ; and lastly, those which keep their gills 

 through life suggest certain finless fishes, such as the conger- 

 eels and the lampreys. It was just the same in the old days, 

 when amphibians flourished more abundantly than now ; they 

 struck out in many directions some taking on a long snakelike 

 form (see Plate VII. and Fig. 23), others being short and with 

 larger limbs, while in the matter of size there were great 

 differences. 



As far as present knowledge goes, it seems to indicate that the 

 reptilian class in early days was less advanced than in the later 

 phases of the Secondary era (i.e. during ^e Jurassic and 

 Cretaceous periods) ; and so we can understand that amphibians 

 to some extent played the part of reptiles in those remote ages 

 of the coal-forests and the New Red Sandstone. Their very 

 diversity shows that they were in a flourishing condition, and 

 probably had a pretty wide field to themselves, without too many 

 enemies. A certain amount of competition with other creatures, 

 no doubt, they had to submit to ; but with fishes they could 

 hold their own. Later on came a much more severe form of 

 competition from highly developed reptiles, such as Dinosaurs, 

 and that was too much for them (according to Darwinian 

 teaching). As the reptile class rose, amphibians, of course, came 

 off second best, and the geological record tells us that, ever since, 

 they have remained in the background of the theatre of life. 



It will be well, before proceeding to describe some of the 

 better-known types of Labyrinthodonts, to say a word about the 

 general characters by which they may be distinguished. Of 



