156 ON SOME ADDITIONAL LABYRINTHODONT FOSSILS, N, S. WALES, 



ON SOME ADDITIONAL LABYRINTHODONT FOSSILS 

 FROM THE HAWKESBURY SANDSTONE OF NEW 

 SOUTH WALES. 



SECOND NOTE ON PLATYCEPS WILKINSONII. 



By Professor Stephens, M.A., F.G.S. 



The fossils which Mr. Wilkinson, Government Geologist, has had 

 collected at Gosford, in the beds from which Platyceps Wilkinsonii, 

 described in the last Volume of Proceedings, was obtained, were 

 brought to Sydney at the beginning of this month of March. 



The collection contains liundreds of specimens of fish, of many 

 genera and families, among which is a possible Ceratodus, many 

 Belonostonius of all sizes, Gleithrolepis, (fee, and many which are at 

 present quite unknown to Qie. They are chiefly if not altogether 

 •Ganoids, and many quite new, at least to Australia. Some have 

 been much broken in the quarry, others injured sul)sequently ; 

 but all were otherwise in a wondeiful state of preservation. They 

 had evidently been all killed at the same moment, and immediately 

 buried. Some are quite straight and in their natural posture ; 

 others convulsed and distorted. One large fish for example has 

 the right pectoral fin thrown up on the same plane as the dorsal, 

 with the underside of the head and fore quarter, and the right side 

 of the rest of the body presented, showing both that the notochord 

 was cartilaginous, and that the fish died suddenly in its struggles. 

 Many others are twisted and bent double ; and all seem to 

 corroborate the speculation, advanced in a previous paper, 

 that they were killed by a sudden influx of ice-cold mud or 

 muddy water into the tepid lagoon whei-e they had been living. 

 There are also with them beautifully preserved ferns, Phyllotheca 

 and the like, which had evidently undergone no decomposition 

 before they were silted up, but had been buried at once in the mud 

 of the torrent which had torn them away. Besides the fish and 

 vegetable remains there are also two Labvrinthodont remains ; 

 No. 1, almost entire, though not in good preservation, and No. 2, 



