Page:Geology and Mineralogy considered with reference to Natural Theology, 1837, volume 1.djvu/213

 Rh combines in the structure both of the bones, and some of the soft parts, characters which are common to the class of reptiles. M. Agassiz has already ascertained seventeen genera of Sauroid Fishes. Their only living representatives are the genus Lepidosteus, or bony Pike (Pl. 27a Fig. 1.) and the genus Polypterus (Agass. Poiss, Foss. Vol. 2, Tab. C.) the former containing five species, and the latter two. Both these genera are found only in fresh waters, the Lepidosteus in the rivers of North America, and the Polypterus in the Nile, and the waters of Senegal.

The teeth of the Sauroid Fishes are striated longitudinally towards the base, and have a hollow cone within. (See Pl. 27a, 2, 3, 4; and Pl. 27. 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14.) The bones of the palate also are furnished with a large apparatus of teeth.

Pl. 27, Figs. ll, 12, 13, 14, represent teeth of the largest Sauroid Fishes yet discovered, equalling in size the teeth of the largest Crocodiles: they occur in the lower region of the Coal formation near Edinburgh, and are referred by M. Agassiz to a new genus, Megalichthys. Pl. 27, Fig. 9, and Pl. 27a, Fig. 4, are fragments of jaws, containing many