Davis—On the Fossil Fishes of the Chalk of Mount Lebanon. 589 
elements of the spinal column is greater than that of any other species of the 
genus. 
Formation and Locality—Upper Cretaceous, soft chalk: Sahel Alma, Mount 
Lebanon. 
Ex coll.—Museum at Geneva. 
Spaniodon electus, Davis. 
(PB xcxxty,, tig. 2) 
The specimen which serves for the type of this species is well preserved from 
the nape backwards; the head is somewhat displaced and difficult to discriminate. 
The length of the fish, from the snout to the peduncle of the tail, is 7-0 inches ; the 
tail to the extremity of the lower lobe occupies an additional 1:5 inch. The 
height of the body is 1°35 inch midway between the head and the anterior rays 
of the dorsal fin, equal to one-fifth the total length; the body gradually diminishes 
in height to the peduncle of the tail, where it is 0°45 inch. 
The head is 2:3 inches in length. The gape is wide. Each pre-maxillary 
bone is furnished with two large teeth, which appear to be the only large ones in 
the upper jaw ; they are more or less curved inwards; the surface striated, pointed. 
The lower jaws are armed with two or three teeth on each ramus; the orbit is 
high, elongated anteriorly, forming an acute angle, situated midway between the 
tip of the snout and the posterior margin of the operculum. The opercular bones 
are circular posteriorly, long as high, and 0:8 inch in diameter ; their constitution 
cannot be ascertained. Nine branchiostegal rays exist on each side; they are 
0°8 inch in length, curved, and slender. 
The vertebral column is composed of forty-eight to fifty vertebra, 0-1 inch in 
length anteriorly, and gradually diminishing towards the tail; they are as high as 
long; twenty-one are caudal. A large number of neural spines extend from 
vertebral axis, and interneural spines support the dorsal fin. The hzmal spines, 
equal in number to the vertebra of the caudal region, support the interhemal 
spines, to which are attached the fin-rays of the anal fin. The abdominal cavity 
is large, long, straight; divaricating ribs extend from the vertebral column to the 
inferior margin of the abdominal cavity. The position of the stomach is indicated 
by the preserved remains of a semi-absorbed fish, extending from the pectoral to 
the ventral fins. 
The dorsal fin is small, composed of twenty-one fin-rays, the longest an inch 
in length; the base of the fin extends 0°8 inch; the base of the anterior ray is 
4-5 inches from the snout and 2°5 inches from the base of the caudal fin. The 
anal fin is situated in immediate proximity to the caudal, and extends 0°8 inch 
along the abdominal surface; it has twenty-two rays, the anterior ones 0°3 inch 
TRANS. ROY. DUB. SOC., N.S. VOL. Il. 4h 
