LIVING GANOIDS 159 
recent gars, and, on the other, even as evidently to the 
sturgeons ; of all fossil kindred of these living forms, it 
seems most nearly in the ancestral line. 
Fig. 164.— Paleoniscus macropomus, Agassiz. x %. (After restoration of 
TRAQUAIR.) Upper Permian. 
Ganoids certainly outrank the Crossopterygians in the 
number and variety of their ancient forms. Their few 
living representatives give but little idea of the importance 
of the group, and can suggest but faintly the lines of its 
evolution. 
Living Types 
The recent Ganoids include the Gar-pike, the Sturgeons, 
and Amia. The first is of especial interest in connecting 
the group most closely with the Crossopterygians, the last 
as best illustrating the intermediate stage between the 
Ganoids and Teleosts. 
The Gar-pike, Lepidosteus (Fig. 157), resembles Polyp- 
terus in many characters of skeleton and dermal defences. 
It is a form not uncommon in the fresh waters of North 
America, and is especially abundant in the Mississippi, 
Great Lakes, and rivers of the Southern States. In South 
Carolina the writer has known the gar-pikes to occur in 
such numbers that they would fill the shad nets, and for 
many days render this fishery impracticable. They some- 
times attain a length of six feet, and are said to become 
