come into existence for ages afterwards. In many parts of Lancashire, in the shales which overlie the coal-seams, these shining enamelled plates may be turned up by the thousand. The smaller fishes haunted the shallower lagoons overhung by clubmosses and ferns, and the dim light that broke Fig. 39. Teeth and Scales of Carboniferous Fish. through these was often reflected from the sheeny mail of Palæonisci, as they wantoned and gambolled, unaware of "great-fish" lying near. When the muddy bottoms of these reaches and lagoons became afterwards hardened into coal-shale, the dead fishes lying there, whose hard covering had protected them from decay, were entombed and passed into a fossil state. a Lepidodendron (restored); b & c impressions on back; d stem with leaves; e leaflet; f fruit of Lepidodendron, called Lepidostrobus; g showing spores in bracts of fruit. |