

Fossil Fishes. 49 



fib 



This subdivision is 



remarkably well developed near Aymestry in Herefordshire, in some 

 parts of Shropshire, and at Sedgley in Staffordshire. The third and 

 last subdivision is that of the lower Ludlow rocks ; these are con- 

 cretionary and sandy limestones, and sandy shales of a dark color ; 



and 



M 



Bridgwood in the valley of Woolhope in Herefordshire, in the escarp- 

 ments, in Montgomery and the Radnor Forest and are characterized 

 by three species of Phragmoceras (a new genus of Mr. Broderip), by 

 the Asaphus caudatus, Brong. ; two species of Cardiola (new genus 



f Naut 



At 



Pleurotomaria, the Orthocera pyriformis, and many other fossils. 

 The teeth of fishes have also been found in this formation, though 

 not in great numbers, and lying most commonly in the upper Lud- 

 low rocks. No part of the body of a fish was ever discovered in this 

 formation till this present year, when the upper beds being removed 

 at Ludford, in digging the foundation of some houses, a heap of 

 scales were discovered, as also the rays of fins, and teeth completely 

 broken lying huddled together, and forming a bed between the strata 

 of sandstone which contain an immense number of Serpulae also, 

 Leptcena lata, and of other fossils which characterize this formation. 

 H These fragments are too incomplete, to enable us at the present 

 moment to arrange them in a systematic table of classification. It is, 

 however certain, that they do not present any specific analogy to the 

 fishes of the old red sandstone formation. The remains of the fins 

 belong to a different species of Ichthyodorulites, and the scales ap- 

 pear to belong to different fishes of the family Lepidoidians, for 

 their appearance is very varied ; the teeth, moreover, are less nu- 

 merous, and none have been found entire. The nature of these stra- 

 ta, their disintegrated condition, and the fossils which they contain, 

 have, altogether, led Mr. Murchison to suppose that they have been 

 deposited in very shallow waters. Only a very few Ichthyodorulites 

 have been found in the lower Ludlow rocks ; and siace Mr. Murchi- 

 son has not collected them himself, he thinks that their presence m 

 this subdivision should be admitted with some degree of hesitation; 

 and the more so, as they have not been found in the Aymestry lime- 

 stone, which contains such an immense quantity of organic debris^ 

 and amongst others of the Pmtamcrus. 



Vol. XXIX.— No- 1,7 



