Whymper Original Early Drawing of Fishes of the Permian

WHYMPER, Charles (1853-1941).
Fishes of the Permian Period (Amblypterus, Palaeoniscus, Polyzoa, Ammonoid, Lampshell, Platysomus, Schizodus).
Original Illustration in pen, ink and grey wash, heightened in white.
c.1905-1912.
9 7/8" x 6 7/8" sheet.

Original artwork for Henry R. Knipe's Nebula to Man. Illustrated on page 39.

1. Amblypterus is an extinct genus of ray-finned fish.

2. Palaeoniscum is an extinct genus of ray-finned fish from the Permian period of Europe (England, Germany, Czech Republic, Turkey), North America (Greenland), and possibly other regions. The genus was named Palaeoniscum in 1818 by Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville, but was later misspelled as Palaeoniscus by Blainville and other authors (notably Louis Agassiz). Palaeoniscum belongs to the family Palaeoniscidae.

3. Bryozoa (also known as the Polyzoa, Ectoprocta or commonly as moss animals) are a phylum of simple, aquatic invertebrate animals, nearly all living in sedentary colonies. Typically about 0.5 millimeters (1⁄64 inch) long, they have a special feeding structure called a lophophore, a "crown" of tentacles used for filter feeding. Most marine bryozoans live in tropical waters, but a few are found in oceanic trenches and polar waters. The terms "Polyzoa" and "Bryozoa" were introduced a year apart, in 1830 and 1831 respectively. Soon after it was named, another group of animals was discovered whose filtering mechanism looked similar, so it was included in Bryozoa until 1869, when the two groups were noted to be very different internally. The new group was given the name "Entoprocta", while the original Bryozoa were called "Ectoprocta". Disagreements about terminology persisted well into the 20th Century, but "Bryozoa" is now the generally accepted term.

4. Ammonoids are a group of extinct marine mollusk animals in the subclass Ammonoidea of the class Cephalopoda. These mollusks, commonly referred to as ammonites, are more closely related to living coleoids (i.e., octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish) than they are to shelled nautiloids such as the living Nautilus species.[1] The earliest ammonites appear during the Devonian, and the last species vanished in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event.

5. Often known as "lamp shells", since the curved shells of the class Terebratulida resemble pottery oil-lamps, Brachiopods are a group of lophotrochozoan animals that have hard "valves" (shells) on the upper and lower surfaces, unlike the left and right arrangement in bivalve mollusks. Brachiopod valves are hinged at the rear end, while the front can be opened for feeding or closed for protection. The word "brachiopod" is formed from the Ancient Greek words brachion ("arm") and podos ("foot").

6. Platysomus is an extinct genus of ray-finned fish that lived in the Carboniferous and Permian periods. Fossils have been found worldwide. Platysomus was about 18 centimeters (7.1 in) long, and shaped similarly to the discus fish, having the same flattened body and elongated dorsal and anal fins. Its jaws were placed vertically under the braincase, giving it a wide gape. Platysomus is thought to have fed on plankton, and lived in both fresh and saltwater.

7. Schizodus is an extinct genus of shallow marine clams. It lived from the Silurian to Early Jurassic periods. Schizodus is the exemplar of schizodonts, clams having reverse V-shaped scissurate hinge teeth, and often an elongated lateral tooth.