PA'L.ZEONISTUS (Xeo-Lat., from Gk. ra Nat6s, pahrios, ancient ± 6140-KOS, 011iSk OS, fish of the cod kind, diminutive of (Ivor, onus, ass). A geniis of fossil actinopterygian fishes found in the Permian rocks of Europe. The body was long and slender, covered with regular ganoid scales, and was provided with SIMI 11 triangular pectoral, pelvic•, and anal tins. It is espe cially c minion in the shales of Englaml and in the copper-bearing shales of Thuringia, in Ger many.
PA'LlEOSPONMYLUS (Neo-Lat., from Gk. raNat6s, pa/oios, ancient + o-r6vouXos, spom/yloR, cup6o5vNos, sphondyloR, vertebra). A very inter esting fish-like fossil found in the flagstones of the Old Red Sandstone at Avh:nr:u•ras, Thurso. Seotland. The entire fossil is scarcely two inches long, and it consists of an anterior broader cephalic portion and a long posterior slender vertebral column, terminated by a deli cate feather-like fin. The structure of the head resembles that of the recent lamprey, and on this account Pabeospondylus is supposed to he an ancestral lamprey. in which all the eartilages were ealcified. Consult: Dean, "The Devonian Lamprey, Pabeospondylus gmmi Traquir, with Notes on the Systematic Arrangement of the Fish-like Vertebrata," in York _tc•ademy of Sciences, Memoirs, vol. ii., part i. (New York, 1899) , See CYCLOSTDAI I.
PA'LlEOTHE'RIUM (Neo-Lat.. from Gk. 7raXat6s, palaios, ancient + enp/ov, thArion, di minutive of 04p. thrr, wild beast ). An extinct perissodactylate 'hoofed mamnial of the size of a rhinoceros found in abundance in some F.oeene deposits of Europe. It was described and named by Cu vier in 1804 front specimens exhumed at the gypsum quarries at Montmartre. near Paris. By some authors it has been looked upon as a three-toed ancestor of the horse, but it is more properly considered to represent a lateral off shoot from the main line of evolution of the horse. See rIonsE, pAL./E'PHATUS (Lat., from Gk. ilaXal(Pa TO( Palcaphatas). A Greek mythographer, of an uncertain period, who is said to have written in several hooks an historical and allegorical ex planation of Greek un•ths. Of this work there is extant only a short abstract, On Incredible Tales (1E131 arlarcup), which was formerly a favorite school Imok. In it Pal:ephatus gives a brief ac count of about fifty of the most celebrated Greek legends, and explains them according to the method of Euhemerus. The treatise has been edited by Westermann, in his MvOcrypitOot (Bruns wick, 1843). Consult Wippreeht, Questioncs !'altrphutetr• ( 1892).