Search the Dictionary

A genus of fossil ganoid fishes found in the old red sandstone or Devonian formation. The head is large, and protected by a broad shield-shaped helmet prolonged behind into two lateral points.

A genus of ganoid fishes, of the order Dipnoi, first known as Mesozoic fossil fishes; but recently two living species have been discovered in Australian rivers. They have lungs so well developed that they can leave the water and breathe in air. In Australia they are called salmon and baramunda. See Dipnoi, and Archipte…

A genus of fossil corals, common in the lower Silurian limestones.

uspension bridge. -- Chain cable, a cable made of iron links. -- Chain coral (Zoöl.), a fossil coral of the genus Halysites, common in the middle and upper Silurian rocks. The tubular corallites are united side by side in groups, looking in an end view like links of a chain. When perfect, the calicles show twelve sep…

A genus of extinct animals, so named from fossil footprints rudely resembling impressions of the human hand, and believed to have been made by labyrinthodont reptiles. See Illustration in Appendix.

A fossil or petrified conch or shell.

A peculiar toothlike fossil of many forms, found especially in carboniferous rocks. Such fossils are supposed by some to be the teeth of marsipobranch fishes, but they are probably the jaws of annelids.

A piece of petrified dung; a fossil excrement.

A fossil coralline.

A fossil shell, curved like a ram's horn; an obsolete name for an ammonite.

ding numerous extinct families and genera, but comparatively few living ones. Most of the fossil species, like some that are recent, were attached by a jointed stem. See Blastoidea, Cystoidea, Comatula.

esthood works out its task age after age, . . . treasuring in convents and crypts the few fossils of antique learning. Motley. My knees are bowed in crypt and shrine. Tennyson.

A fossil coral of the family Cyathophyllidæ; sometimes extended to fossil corals of other related families belonging to the group Rugosa; -- also called cup corals. Thay are found in paleozoic rocks.

An order of Crinoidea, mostly fossils of the Paleozoic rocks. They were usually roundish or egg-shaped, and often unsymmetrical; some were sessile, others had short stems.

A petrified or fossil shrub, plant, or part of a plant.

or up, to get out or obtain by digging; as, to dig coal from or out of a mine; to dig out fossils; to dig up a tree. The preposition is often omitted; as, the men are digging coal, digging iron ore, digging potatoes. -- To dig in, to cover by digging; as, to dig in manure.(b) To entrench oneself so as to give stronger…

A fossil echinoid.

r Proboscidia, of which two living species, Elephas Indicus and E. Africanus, and several fossil species, are known. They have a proboscis or trunk, and two large ivory tusks proceeding from the extremity of the upper jaw, and curving upwards. The molar teeth are large and have transverse folds. Elephants are the large…

A fossil crinoid, esp. one belonging to, or resembling, the genus Encrinus. Sometimes used in a general sense for any crinoid.

That order of the Crinoidea which includes most of the living and many fossil forms, having jointed arms around the margin of the oral disk; -- also called Brachiata and Articulata. See Illusts. under Comatula and Crinoidea.