740 THE WONDERS OF GEOLOGY. Lect. VII. 



Fossil Scorpion. — Not only are the remains of insects 

 imbedded in the coal strata, but also those of animals, to 

 which they served as food. A fossil Scorpion has been 

 discovered by Counf Sternberg, in carboniferous argilla- 

 ceous schist, at Chomle, S.W. of Prague, in Bohemia.* 

 This fossil is about two inches and a half long, and is 

 imbedded in coal shale, with leaves and fruits. The legs, 

 claws, jaws and teeth, skin, hairs, and even portions of the 

 trachea, or breathing apparatus, are preserved. It has 

 twelve eyes, and all the sockets remain ; one of the small 

 eyes, and the left large eye, retain their form, and have the 

 cornea, or outer skin, preserved in a corrugated or shrivelled 

 state. The horny covering is also preserved ; it is neither 

 carbonized nor decomposed, the peculiar substance of which 

 it consists, ely trine, having resisted decomposition and 

 mineralization. 



4.7. Fishes of the Carboniferous System. — With 

 the exception of some enigmatical footmarks, and the speci- 

 men of a reptile said to have been recently procured from 

 the coal strata of Saarbriick, fishes are the only vertebrata 

 of which any relics have been observed either in the carbo- 

 niferous system, or in any fossiliferous deposits of higher 

 antiquity. 



The fishes of the coal, with but one exception, are of the 

 placoid and ganoid orders (ante, p. 340) : and several of the 

 genera have not been found in any other system ; all of 

 these have the heterocercal form of tail {ante, p. 530). I 

 can only allude to a few of the most characteristic. 



Amblypterus. This is a genus restricted to the carboni- 

 ferous system, charactererized, as its name implies, by very 

 large and wide fins composed of numerous rays. The 

 scales are rhomboidal and finely enamelled ; and the teeth 

 are small, numerous, and set close together like the hairs 

 of a brush ; indicating that these fishes fed on decayed sea- 



* See Dr. Buckland's Bridgwater Essay, plate 46, p. 406, el .<?< 7. 



