



^ V 



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ant all 



future 

 Licli an 



a were 



It wis 

 ; than 



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 iferon 



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large 



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 fossil 

 foi 



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Ch. XL] 



COAL— DET 



229 



to Lave been far warmer 



now 



^ utiles of coal.—'No representatives of the Vertebrata 

 have been found in the Coal formation except reptiles and fish. 

 The species of the former class are confined to two extinct 



orders, 



Laby 



Both of these 



depart widely from living types, but approach most nearly to 

 the tailed batrachians of our time, to which the salan 



branchiate 



All 



these are members of the sub-class Amphibia, which are 



mairy 



and fish. Their nearest living allies are only found at present 

 north of the equator ; but in the northern hemisphere they 

 have, according to Mr. Gimther 



range 



south, in America, as well as Europe and Asia. They are most 

 numerously represented in genera, species, and individuals in 

 the Southern United States, and in the table-land of Mexico. 

 In Guatemala they have already become scarce, being re- 

 duced to one or two forms. As to their extension in the oppo- 

 site direction, some small species occur in the Canadian lakes ; 

 one of these, of the 



Menobranchus family, Giredon hiemal 

 having been observed as far north as Lake Superior, in 



a 



place where the water was frozen over an inch thick every 

 night for three months.* Such a geographical distribution is 

 confirmatory of the conclusions as to climate to which we 

 have been led by the plants of the Carboniferous era, as the 

 tailed batrachians attain their fullest development between 

 the 20th and 40th degrees of latitude, or in a warm zone 



free from intense heat or cold. 



Devonian Period.— In the antecedent Devonian period 

 there are no reptiles, not even any of the order Amphibia. 

 There are abundance of Ganoid fish, which have their nearest 

 living analogues in the rivers of Northern Africa, for they 

 are closely related to the African Polypterus, of which several 



and others in the rivers of 

 Senegal, The Devonian, or Old Eed crustaceans of the ex- 



Nile 



Eurypteridte, attain some 



* Dr. Samuel Kneeland, Proceed. Boston Soe. Nat, Hist., vol. vi. p. 152. 



