PELVIC GIRDLE AND FIN OF EUfeTHENUPTEEON. Sll 



On the Pelvic Girdle and Pin of 

 Eusthenopteron. 



By 



Edwin S. Ouodi-icli, M.A., 



Fellow of Mertou College, Oxford. 



With Plate 16. 



Through the kindness of Mr. A. Smith Woodward,^ I 

 have recently had the opportunity of looking through the 

 fossil fish acquired by the British Museum since the Cata- 

 logue was published. Amongst these was found a specimen 

 of Eusthenopteron foordi, Whit., showing the endo- 

 skeleton of the pelvic girdle and fin, of which I here give a 

 description. The interest attaching to this fossil is con- 

 siderable, since, of all the numerous extinct fish usually 

 included in the group " Crossopterygii," it is the first and 

 only one in which the parts of the skeleton of the pelvic girdle 

 and its fin have been found complete and in their natural 

 relations.^ 



The specimen (P. 6794) of which both the slab and the 

 counterslab have been preserved, comes from the Upper 

 Devonian of Canada, In it can be made out the skeleton of 

 the pelvic girdle and fin of the right side, in a fairly com- 

 plete and well-preserved condition, as represented in PI. 10, 

 fig. 1, natural size. 



' To Mr. Smitli Woodward I am also indebted for constant help when 

 working in his Department. 



' Ihe skeleton of the pelvic fin of Megaliclithys has to some extent been 

 made known by Cope, Miall, and Wellburn (2, 5, and 9), and the essential 

 structure of that of Eusthenopteron has been briefly described by Traquair (7). 



VOL. 45, PAltT 2. NKW SEKJKS. Y 



