14 and 15.) Four small plates (2, 4, 5) formed the under curve of the
eyes, described in many of the osseous fishes by a chain of small bones
or ossicles; a considerably larger plate (6) occupied the place of the
preopercular bone; while the intermaxillaries had their representatives
in well-marked plates, (3, 3,) which, in the genera _Osteolepis_,
_Diplopterus_, and _Glyptolepis_, we find bristling so thickly with
teeth along their lower edges, as to remind us of the miniature saws
employed by the joiner in cutting out circular holes. These external
intermaxillaries did not, as in the perch or cod, meet in front of the
nasal bone and vomer, but joined on at the side, a little in advance of
the eyes, leaving the rounded termination of the cranial buckler, which,
like the intermaxillaries, was thickly fringed with teeth, to form, as
has been already said, the creature’s snout.
[Illustration: Fig. 13.
UPPER PART OF HEAD OF OSTEOLEPIS.]
The under jaws (10)—strongly-marked bones in at least all the Dipterian
and Cœlacanth genera—we find represented externally by massy plates,
bearing, like those of the upper jaw, their range of teeth. As shown
in a well-preserved specimen of the lower jaw of _Holoptychius_, in
my possession, they were boxes of bone enclosing a bulky nucleus of
cartilage, which, in approaching towards the condyloid process, where
great strength was necessary, was thickly traversed by osseous cancelli,
and passed at the joint into true bone. It is in the under jaws of the
earlier Ganoids that we first detect a true union of the external with
the internal skeleton,—of the bony plates and teeth, which were _mere
plates and teeth of the skin_, with the osseous, granular walls which
enclosed at least all the larger pieces of the cartilaginous framework
of the interior. The jaws of the Rays and Sharks, formed of cartilage,
and fenced round on their sides and edges by their thin coverings of
polygonal, bony points, are wholly internal and skin-covered; whereas
the teeth, which rest on the soft cuticular integument right over them,
are as purely dermal as the surrounding shagreen. Teeth and shagreen
may, we find, be alike stripped off with the skin. Now, in the earlier
ganoidal jaw, two sides of the osseous box which it composed,—its outer
and under sides,—were mere dermal plates, representative of the skin
of the placoids, or of their shagreen; while the other two,—its upper
and inner sides,—seem to have been developments of the interior osseous
walls which covered the endo-skeletal cartilage. Nor is it unworthy of
notice, that the reptile fishes of the period had their _ichthyic_ teeth
ranged along the edge of an exterior _dermal_ plate which covered the
outer side of the jaw; whereas their _reptile_ teeth were planted on
a plate, apparently of interior development, which covered its upper
edge. It is further worthy of remark, that while the teeth of the dermal
plate,—themselves also dermal,—seem as if they had grown out of it, and
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account