GENERAL CHARACTERS. 
3 i 5 
Although the bony fishes of the present day form a specialised side-branch, which 
has lost many of the characters common to the two classes, it will be evident that 
Fishes and Amphibians are very closely allied groups; the latter of which has been 
directly derived from the former. Geologically, fishes are older than any of the 
classes hitherto described, their fossil remains occurring in strata belonging to the 
upper part of the Silurian division of the Palaeozoic epoch. 
The form of a typical fish is so well known that it will be quite unnecessary 
to describe it; and it may be mentioned that this typical form, which is the one 
best adapted for progress through water, is very general amongst fresh-water fishes, 
although the eels constitute an exception in this respect. Much greater diversity 
exists, however, among the marine representatives of the class; and we may cite 
as extreme types a shark, a flat-fish, a ribbon-fish, and a globe-fish. 
The structure of the skeleton, both external and internal, being 
Classification. . . . . . 
of the utmost importance in the classification of fishes, it is essential 
that the attention of the reader should be more fully directed to this point than 
has been done in the case of the higher Vertebrates. It should first be mentioned 
that fishes are divided into four subclasses, namely, the Lung-Fishes or Dipnoi; the 
Chimseroids, or Holocephali; the Bony Fishes and Ganoids, or Teleostomi; and the 
Sharks and Rays, or Elasmobranchii. These may be further subdivided into orders 
as follows:— 
1. Lung-Fishes—Subclass Dipnoi. 
(1) True Lung-Fishes—Order Sirenoidei. 
(2) Berry-Boned Fishes—Order Arthrodira (extinct). 
2. Chimseroids—Subclass Holocephali. 
3. Bony-Fishes and Ganoids—Subclass Teleostomi. 
(1) Fan-Finned Fishes—Order Actinopterygii. 
(2) Fringe-Finned Ganoids—Order Crossopterygii. 
4. Sharks and Rays—Subclass Elasmobranchii. 
(1) Acanthodians—Order Acanthodii (extinct). 
(2) Fringe-Finned Sharks—Order Ichthyotomi (extinct). 
(3) True Sharks and Rays—Order Selachoidei. 
External In regard to* the external skeleton, the most characteristic type 
Skeleton. takes the form of scales. When these overlap and their posterior 
border is entire, such scales are termed cycloid, but when serrated, ctenoid. The 
external skeleton may. however, take the form of plates or granules, which in the 
chimeeroids and sharks and rays are generally isolated, and have a structure 
precisely similar to that of teeth, consisting of a base of ivory or dentine capped 
with enamel. The so-called ganoid scales, like those of the bony-pike, are, on the 
other hand, quadrangular, and often connected by a peg-and-socket arrangement; 
they are formed of true bone capped with an enamel-like substance termed ganoin, 
and true bone likewise occurs in the plates of the sturgeons. A series of specially 
modified scales, running along the sides of many fishes, constitute the so-called 
lateral line, which is partly connected with the supply of mucus ; and certain large 
V-shaped scales on the borders of the fins of many extinct bony fishes are known 
as fulcra. The fin-rays, which also come under the designation of dermal structures, 
