OF CREATION. 7l 



was by no means a general character, and the pre- 

 sence of prominent spines supporting and defending 

 the fins is probably more essential. The annexed 

 figure (25) represents one genus in which these 

 spines are beautifully exhibited in connexion with 

 very minute although perfectly ganoid scales. It is 

 probable, that almost if not all the fishes of this 

 family of dipterians were more rapid swimmers 

 and more voracious than those of the former two 

 families. They are all, however, of small size. 



Fig. 25 



SPINE-FINNED FISH. (Chirucantitus.) 



Besides these there is another family, chiefly de- 

 veloped in the latter part of the period, and attain- 

 ing a larger size. One of the members of this group 

 has been named Holoptychius^ and is confined to the 

 devonian period. Its head was small compared with 

 the size of the body, whose proportions were so robust 

 and its covering of large rounded deeply-wrinkled 

 scales on so grand a scale as almost to deserve being 

 called gigantic. The actual dimensions of the body 

 in one complete specimen measure thirty inches by 

 upwards of twelve. The jaws were of bone, coated 



* From oXog (holos\ the whole, TrrDx?) (ptyche), a wrinkle or fold. The 

 whole surface of the scales being covered with deeply marked wrinkles. 



