Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-04-23
THE OLDEST FISHES,
The Interesting Collection Now Being Pre-
pared at the National Museum.

The Interesting Collection Now Being Pre-
pared at the National Museum.
A collection Of the Oldest fishes OF the world
is now being prepared for exhibition at the
National Museum. They we're dug out of tine
rocks recently at Canyon City, Col Great
scientific interest has been aroused by the dis
covery, because they are at least 100. 900 years
more ancient than any creatures with back
bones ever found before. They come from the
sedimentary deposits laid down by water in
the distant epoch called the silurian. No verte-
brate animals had been obtained previously
below the upper silurian. These are from the
lower siiurian. and some notion of the differ
ence OF time may be got from the tact that the
two horizons" are separated in the Appala-
chan region by 5000 feet OF sediment.
WHERE THESE FISHES WE'RE FOUND
was once a sand beach on the western shore
of a vast interior sea. which extended eastward
from the Rocky mountains and covered a large
part Of the continent. biologists, wandering
| through that region so prolific of treasures in
the shape of fossils. came upon the deposits
accidentally The line of the ancient beach is
still visible, although it is overlaid by sedi-
mentary rocks of subsequent formation. They
made excavations with pickax and
blast, getting out a great guam
tity of material. which was brought
to Washington. Thirty millions OF years
have perhaps elapsed since the creatures thus
dug out were living. 1t must have been a
strange world in which they had their being so
far back il the night of time. Even the rep
tiles which nOurished and attained such gigan-
tic. dimensions at a later period did not yet
exist. The only vertebrGtes were fishes.
ARMoRED FISHES.
These fishes Of the lower silurian we're all
smalI-the diminutive types of the great fishes
which swarmed in the waters during a later
period. which has been called the age of fishes.
They were clad IN armor. being covered with
plates Of bone instead of scales. Their skele-
tons were composed wholly of cartilage, like
those of the sharks of today, which thems elves
represent an enormously ancient finny pattern.
Under the microscope it is possible to see the
plates. In similar armOr was the huge and
ferocious dinichthys. as well as other marine
monsters OF subsequent epoch, dressed.
INvERTEBRArE ANIMALS.
Besides the fishes, many invertebrate animals
were found in these same deposits. There
were innumerable boring worms. and il is very
interesting to see the actual holes which they
made SO long ago in fragments Of the rock.
There were trllobites also-queer crustaceaus
which we're the ancestors of modern lobsters
and crabs. Mollusks were there in plenty too, Of
a species known as the ''lingula." somewhat re-
sernbling CLAIMS Millions upon millions of years
ago they were good to eat At the present time
the lingulas are very plentiful in Chesapeake
bay. OF these ancient creatures they alone
have survived; the others are all extinct. To-
gether with the fossils above described were
discovered ever SO many specimens OF the or
thoceras, mollusk resembling the chambered
nautilus, but having straight shell instead OF
a spiral one Above the deposits which formed
the grave of the animals mentioned a coral
| reef subsequently was built by industrious
| poiyps.