The long and pointed jaws are a striking feature of these animals. The eyes were very large and powerful, and specially adapted, as we shall see presently, to the conditions of their life.
It might, perhaps, be asked whether the fish-lizards breathed, like fishes, by means of gills. That question can easily be answered; for if they had possessed gills for taking in water and breathing the air dissolved therein, they would reveal the fact by showing a bony framework for the support of gills, such as are to be found in all fishes. These structures, known as "branchial arches," are absent; therefore the fish-lizards possessed lungs, and breathed air like reptiles of the present day. Their skulls show where the nostrils were situated; namely, near the eyes, and not at the end of the upper jaw-bone. There are also passages in the skull leading from the nostrils to the palate, along which currents of air passed on their way to the lungs. Being air-breathers, they would be compelled occasionally to seek the surface of the sea, in order to obtain a fresh supply of the life-giving element--oxygen; but, being cold-blooded and with a small brain, needing a much less supply of oxygen for its work, the fish-lizards had, like fishes, this advantage over whales, which are warm-blooded--that their stern-propeller, or tail-fin, could take the form best adapted for a swift, straight-forward course through the water.
In the whale tribe the tail-fin is horizontal; and this is so on account of their need, as large-brained, warm-blooded air-breathers, of speedy access to the atmospheric air. Were it otherwise, they would not have the means of rising with sufficient rapidity to the surface of the sea; for they have only one pair of fins. But the fish-lizards had two pairs of these appendages, and the hinder or pelvic pair no doubt were of great service in helping the creatures to come up to the surface when necessary.
Thus we see that the whale, with its one pair of paddles, has a tail specially planned with a view to rapid vertical movement through the water; while in the fish-lizards, who did not require to breathe so frequently, the tail-fin was planned with a view to swift and straight movement forward as they pursued their prey, and they were compensated by having bestowed upon them an extra pair of paddles. Thus we learn how one part of an animal is related to and dependent upon another, and how they all work together with the greatest harmony for certain definite purposes (see p. 6).