76 TRIASSIC FISHES AND PLANTS. 
Ischypterus ; from which we may infer that the dental apparatus was em- 
ployed in serious and severe work of some kind. The only vegetable re- 
mains found in the fish-beds of New Jersey and Connecticut are those of 
land plants—fronds of cycads and twigs of conifers—and it is hardly prob- 
able these could have formed the subsistence of Diplurus. Mollusks and 
Crustaceans are entirely absent; so, unless he devoured the scaled ganoids, 
of which the remains are so abundant, it is difficult to imagine of what his 
food could have consisted. His structure shows that he was a swift and 
powerful fish, and his congeners were carnivorous. We may expect there- 
fore that, when his dentition shall be discovered, that will solve the problem» 
by demonstrating his carnivorous habits. 
