Fossil Fishes. 45 





thaltniis, magnesian limestone. 8. P. longissimus. magnesian lime- 

 stone. 9. P. carinatus, in the clay-ironstone of Wardie. 



I 



Lord Greenock found that many of the balls of clay-ironstone at 

 Wardie, to the westward of Newhaven, contained, as a nucleus cop- 

 rolite, or portions offish. He also found the following species of the 

 genus Ambiypterus at Wardie, viz. A. ambnemoptents, A. punc- 

 tata* ^ A. striatus. Of the genus Osteolepis, the following species 

 are mentioned as British : O. macrolepidotus, in the slate of 

 Caithness and Pomona ; 2. O. Microlepidotus , in Caithness and 

 Pomona; 3. O. arenatus, at Gamrie, in Banffshire. Of the genus 

 Acanthodes, the A. sulcatus, is mentioned as having been found by 

 Lord Greenock at Wardie. Of the genus Cheiracanthus, the fol- 

 lowing species are enumerated as British: 1. Ch. Murchessonii, 

 found at Gamrie by T. Jameson Torrie, Esq. and others ; 2. Ch. 

 minor, by Dr. Traill in Pomona. Of the genus Cheirlepis, the fol* 

 lowing British species are described : I. Ch. Traillii, found by 

 Dr. Traill in the slates of Pomona ; 2. Ch. Uragits, found at Gam- 

 rie, where there is an interesting deposit of fossil fishes in a red sand- 

 stone, which, in the regular succession, is below the coal formation. 

 Of the remarkable genus Cephalaspis, the following British species 

 are mentioned. 1. C. Lyellii, of which fine specimens were found 

 in the old red sandstone of Forfarshire many years ago by Professor 

 Jameson, and since by Mr. Lyell and others ; 2. C. Lewisii, found 

 at Whitebach ; C. Lloydii common, in the old red sandstone in Wales. 

 The consideration of this genus leads our author to the following 

 observations on the strata in which the most ancient Jish are found. 



" The truly astonishing character of the genus (Cephalaspis) afford 

 me a renewed opportunity of remarking how much the several por- 

 tions of the frame of the animals of the most ancient epochs, exhibit 

 a uniformity of structure, and at the same time, types of the animal 

 kingdom which are but little distinguishable among themselves. 



Here, for example, the bones of the head are all as one, the scales, 

 are united in very elevated bands, and the rays of the fins remain 

 covered by the membrane which elsewhere surrounds them ; whilst 

 the whole animal, to a most extraordinary extent, resembles the 

 Trilobites, w T hich have somewhat preceded the Cephalaspis, in the 

 series of their creation. This example alone would suffice to mani- 

 fest the constant laws which regulate the succession of living beings, 

 and their progressive development, if the whole class of fishes were 

 not itself a continual demonstration of it. 



