John Mason Clarke

“ Lichas Boltoni of the Niagara fauna, is a magnificent species, one of the largest of its race and remarkable for the frequency with which its parts are found together, an extremely uncommon occurrence in this thin-shelled group. The Lichas pustulosus of the Lower Helderberg shaly limestone was a great species attaining a length of 10 inches or more. ”

“ Indications of these gigantic forms occur in all the grand faunas of the Palæozoic, with the exception of the Carboniferous where diminution in numbers was accompanied by diminution in size, or, in other words, by the prevalence of genera in which great size was never attained. ”

“ The American Devonian species, G. platys, is not only the latest but the largest known representative of the genus, and for a group which at its maximum development in species and individuals in the Silurian, rarely attained considerable dimensions, the proportions reached by G. platys are especially noteworthy. The entire individuals on plate 1 of Volume VII of the Palæontology show this, and the restoration accompanying a very large pygidium on plate xxv, if accurately drawn, indicates that a length of upward of eight inches was sometimes attained by the species. ”