674 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



In an important memoir on fossil fishes from several forma- 

 tions, published as vol. ix. pt. 5 of the Memoirs of the American 

 Museum of Natural History, Dr. Bashford Dean directs special 

 attention to the nature of the pelvic fins of the arthrodirans, 

 which he finds to be of dermal and not of cartilaginous 

 origin, and therefore unlike the pelvics of any known dipnoan. 

 Accordingly, the supposed affinity of arthrodires to dipnoans 

 is questioned. 



Brief reference will suffice to a note by Mr. F. Chapman in 

 vol. xxi. p. 452 of the Proceedings of the Royal Society of 

 Victoria on the occurrence of teeth of the European selachian 

 genus Corax in the Cretaceous of Queensland. 



Mr. C. R. Eastman is the author of an important memoir on 

 the Devonian fishes of Iowa, which, although published by the 

 Iowa Geological Survey, vol. xxviii., in 1908, did not reach this 

 country till the following year. After a preliminary sketch of 

 the evolutionary history of fishes and a discussion of their 

 taxonomy, the author divides the group into two classes ; 

 namely, the Agnatha, with the subclasses Cyclostomi and Ostra- 

 cophori, and Pisces, with the subclasses Elasmobranchii, Holo- 

 cephali, Dipneusti and Teleostomi. The forms found in the 

 Devonian of Iowa are then discussed in detail, with descriptions 

 of a certain number of new species. 



In connection with the above may be noticed a paper on the 

 fish-fauna of the Alberta shales of New Brunswick by Mr. M. L. 

 Lambe, published in vol. xxxviii. of the American Journal of 

 Science. The Alberta shales, which have been hitherto regarded 

 as Carboniferous, appear from their fish-fauna to be of Devonian 

 age ; the general facies of the fauna being remarkably similar 

 to that of the Scottish Devonian, as is especially indicated by 

 the Palaoniscidce, of which the genera are the same as those 

 found in Scotland, while the species are closely allied. Certain 

 new forms are named. 



Mr. Maurice Leriche has, as usual, been busy with fossil 

 fishes from various parts of the world. The first paper {Ann. 

 Soc. Ge'ol. du Nord, vol. xxxvii. p. 302) relates to the Tertiary 

 sharks of California which, although previously regarded as 

 distinct, are in many cases considered by the author to be 

 inseparable from European species. In a second communication 

 to the same journal, I.e. p. 227, Mr. Leriche describes the Eocene 

 and Paleocene fishes of the Reims district. The formations 



