GANOIDS. 249, 



Amia and Lepidosteus are noticeable for the sucking disk de- 

 veloped on the front of the head ; the larva of the sturgeon has 

 balancer-like structures between the mouth and nose. 



ORDER I. CROSSOPTERYGII. 



Ganoids with diphy- or heterocercal tails ; pectoral fins with 

 a large basal portion covered with scales, the ventral fins usually 

 much like the pectorals, the former abdominal in position ; body 

 covered with rhombic or circular ganoid scales ; a pair of gular 

 (or 'jugal') plates in place of branchiostegals ; no fulcra; dor- 

 sal fins two, or a single one divided into many finlets. The 

 crossopterygians are largely extinct, but two genera persisting 

 to-day. The group first appears in the Devonian. 



FIG. 250. Diplurus longicaudatus, from Dean. A, position of the 

 calcified air-bladder. 



The CCELACANTHID^E (AcTixiSTiA) have unossified centra and cycloicF 

 scales, two dorsal fins, diphycercal caudal, and ossified swim-bladder.. 

 Ccelacanthus, carboniferous of Europe and Ohio ; Diplurus, trias of New 

 Jersey. CYCLODIPTERINI (RHIPIDISTIA) have the vertebrae partially ossi- 



FIG. 251. Head of larval Polypterus, after Steindachner, from Dean. 

 EG, external gill. 



fied ; tail heterocercal ; scales enamelled and rounded behind ; a third' 

 gular plate between the other two. Holoptychius, Devonian of Europe and 

 America; Onychodus and Etisthenopteron, Devonian of America. RHOM- 



