no KANSAS UNIVERSITY QUARTERLY. 



The family Saurodontidc^, as characterised by Professor Cope, in- 

 chided the genera Xipliactinus {Por/heiis), IchtJtyodecics, Erisicthe 

 (provisionally), Hxpsodon, Daptiniis, Saurodou, and Saiiroceplialiis. 

 Erisicthe has since been shown to be a synonym of Frotospliynena 

 and removed to a special family, the name Hypsodon has been ex- 

 punged from the group, and Daptinus has been shown to be a 

 synonym of Saurodon. Since then the genus Gi/Iicus has been ad- 

 ded by Professor Hay, which leaves the five genera enumerated 

 above. 



In 1892. Dr. Crook (Paleontographica, xxxix, p. 129), in an other- 

 wise able paper upon this group of fishes, removes the genus Sauro- 

 cephaliis from the family and places it in the Proiosphyra'nidie, giving 

 for his reasons certain similarities between it and Protosphyrcena 

 which I have been unable to discover. He also renames the remain- 

 der of the group Iciitliyodectida, which had previously been named 

 Sdurodoniidte by Cope, and Sauroceplialidic by Zittel. His reasons 

 for renaming this family are: that the teeth are not like those of 

 Saurians, and that the name Saurodontidce had been already used 

 by Dr. Zittel to designate a family of Ganoid fishes. In a review 

 of Crook's paper Professor Cope (Am. Nat., Vol. xxvi, p. 491), 

 shows wherein he was wrong, and since then the name Iciithyodectidx 

 has not been used by writers on this group of fishes. 



Concerning the name Sauroccplialidcr it can only be said, as Cope's 

 family Saurodontidce was derived from the genus Saurodon, the 

 family of Ganoid fishes so designated by Dr. Zittel, will require 

 another name, which has already been given to it b}^ Professor Cope, 

 Mcicroseniiidce, (Am. Nat. 1889, p. 858.) Thus we see that the 

 name Sciurocephalidce will have to be expunged from the nomen- 

 clature of this group. 



The characters which distinguish the Saurodontidce from the 

 Ichtiixodectidce are found in the presence of a predental bone, the 

 differences in the form of the teeth, and the presence of foramina 

 or deep notches below the internal alveolar border in both jaws. 



PROTOSPHYRAENA LEIDY. 



Protosphyraena gigas sp. nov. 



The material upon .which this species is based was obtained by 

 myself from the Lisbon Shales, Fort Pierre Cretaceous, one mile 

 east of Lisbon, Logan county, Kansas, in the outcrops just north of 

 the track of the Union Pacific railroad. The specimen consists of 

 the distal portion of a pectoral fin-spine, which was well preserved 

 in a small argillaceous nodule, and is interesting from the fact that 



