FAUNA OF THE CARBONIFEROUS AGE. 



403 



between the lowest Perennibranchiate Amphibians and the Sauroid 

 Fishes (Owen), with, perhaps, some alliances with the marine Saurians 

 which afterward appeared. It was so distinct from other Labyrintho- 

 donts that Prof. Owen puts it in a distinct order which he calls Gano- 

 cephala. The skeleton of this animal is given above (Pig. 581) with 

 the limbs ( C and D) and jaw (E) of a Proteus — a perennibranchiate 

 amphibian — for comparison. 



4. Eosaurus. — In the Coal-measures of Xova Scotia, in 1861, Prof. 

 Marsh found the vertebrae of what he thinks, with some reason, was a 

 marine Saurian ; an 

 order which is large- 

 ly developed in the 

 Mesozoic. But as 

 only the bodies of a 

 few vertebrae have 

 been found, and as 

 the bi-concavity of 

 these is the chief 

 evidence of marine 

 Saurian affinity and 

 as bi-concavity also 

 exists among Laby- 

 rinthodonts, Huxley 

 believes this was also 

 a Labyrinthodont. There is, therefore, still some doubt as to the true 

 affinity of this animal. The size of some of the vertebra? was two and 



a half inches in 

 diameter, indi- 

 cating a reptile 

 of gigantic di- 

 mensions. 



Many other 

 genera have been 

 described by au- 

 thors both in 

 Europe and 



America. Among 

 these, Baphetes, 

 Eaniceps, Hyler- 

 peton, Hylono- 

 mus, and Am- 



phibamus from America, and Anthracosaurus, Ophiderpeton, and Apa- 

 teon from Europe, are best known. The Baphetes and the Anthra- 

 cosaurus attained gigantic size. 



Fig. 582.— Two Vertebrae of Eosaurus Acadianus (after Marsh). 



Fig. 583.— Ptyonius (after Cope). 



