E. C. Case — Ainjpliibian Fauna at Linton^ Ohio. 125 



that had previously accumulated at the bottom of the water. 

 The fishes of this pool were mostly small, tile-scaled Ganoids, 

 belonging to the genus Earylepis. Though here extremely 

 abundant, they have not been found elsewhere, I have enumer- 

 ated nine species of this genus, but possibly some of them should 

 be considered as mere varieties. There were also in this lagoon 

 two, or perhaps three, species of Coelacanthus (one of wdiich is 

 so closely allied to C. Upturns of the Coal Measures of Europe 

 that they should not be separated, and yet this genus has been 

 nowhei'e else recognized on the American continent). There are 

 also found here the thin scales, from one to "two inches in diame- 

 ter, some orname;;ted and some plain, and also the lance-head 

 teeth of Rhizodus, and the teeth and spines of Diplodus. On 

 the whole, this must be looked upon as one of the most interest- 

 ing localities of vertebrate fossils known on this continent ; and 

 it is even doubtful whether any other equals it in the number of 

 new species or in their zoological and geological interest."* 



" The large number of species of fishes and amphibians (about 

 fifty) found in one single coal mine at Linton indicates that the 

 vertebrate fauna of the Coal Measures was much richer than has 

 heretofore been supposed. The cannel coal of this locality was 

 undoubtedly deposited in a lagoon of open water in the marsh 

 where Coal No. 6 was formed. How extensive this lagoon was, 

 we have not as yet learned ; but all the fossils found there have 

 been taken from an area of a few hundred feet in diameter. We 

 have probably now obtained representatives of most of the fishes 

 and salamanders that inhabited this body of water, but cer- 

 tainly not all, for every considerable collection made there has 

 contained something new ; and the fauna of the epoch in which 

 this deposit was made must certainly have been very varied, 

 since from this one spot have been taken the remains of fifty dis- 

 tinct species, less than a half dozen of which have been found 

 elsewhere. 



This coal mine at Linton may be regarded, therefore, as a kind 

 of loophole through which we see, in all its details, the life of 

 one locality in the great world of the Carboniferous age. Looking 

 through that, we have before our eyes a little pool of water swarm- 

 ing with fishes of various kinds, some of them very large, clad in 

 mail and provided with most formidable sets of trenchant teeth ; 

 others, small but exceedingly numerous, covered with enameled 

 and highly ornamented scales and plates. These latter, as we 

 learn by coprolitic masses, were the prey of the larger ones. 



With the fishes were a large number of aquatic, carnivorous 

 salamanders, some of which must have been eight or ten feet in 

 length, and as formidably armed as the larger fishes. Others 

 were snake-like in form, yet several feet in length, bristling with 

 spines, or protected by thick and bony scales. Others still were 

 a few inches in length, very slender and delicate, and, as we 



* Newberry, J. S., Geol. Survey, Ohio, vol. 1, Paleontology, pp. 284-5, 

 1873. 



