Mr. A. S. Woodward on a Tooth of Ceratodus. 243 



Note on a Tooth of Ceratodus ft'om the Stormherg Beds of the 

 Orange Free State^ South Africa. 



Though not hitherto recorded, the occurrence of Ceratodus 

 in the Karoo Series of South Africa is a circumstance to be 

 expected, and it is interesting now to be able to make known 

 the discovery of a very typical tooth. The specimen in 

 question was received by the British Museum in exchange 

 from the Bloemfontein Museum, Orange Free State, through 

 the intervention of Dr. Hugh Exton, F.G.S., and the 

 locality being Smithfield, Orange Free State, the fossil 

 was doubtless obtained from the fish- bearing horizon of the 

 Stormberg Beds. The tooth is unfortunately imperfect, as 

 shown in the accompanying figure (PI. XIV. fig. 4) ; but 

 sufiicient remains to render its approximate determination 

 possible. It is of comparatively small size, thin, and trian- 

 gular in shape, with the angulation of the inner margin acute 

 and placed opposite the second denticle. When complete the 

 denticles would be at least five in number, and these are all 

 separated by deep notches at the outer margin, while the 

 ridges extending from them are acute and some nearly reach 

 the inner angulation. 



In the acuteness and number of the ridges the new South- 

 African tooth most nearly approaches those of Ceratodus 

 serratuSj Ag.*, C. PhiliiJpsu, Ag.f, C. runcinatus, Plien.|, 

 and certain forms discovered in the Kota-Maleri Beds of 

 India §. From all these, however, the specimen differs in 

 being as thin as the rounded-ridged teeth of C. Kaupi, Ag. ; 

 and it may therefore be regarded as indicating a new species 

 — Ceratodus capensis. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE XIV. 



Fi^. 1. Atherstonia sciitata, gen. et sp. nov. Lateral aspect of fish, one 

 half nat. size. — Beaufort Beds, Colesberg, Cape Colony, [Brit. 

 Mus. No. P. 473-5.] 



Fig. 2. The same. Flank-scale ; a, external aspect ; b, internal aspect, 

 twice nat. size. 



Fig, 3. The same. Scales at base of dorsal fin^ nat. size. 



Fig. 4. Ceratodus capensis, sp. nov. Tooth ; a, coronal aspect ; b, ante- 

 rior aspect of the same, — Stormberg Beds, Smithfield, Orange 

 Free State. [Brit. Mus. No. P. 4807.] 



* L, Agassiz, Rech. Poiss. Foss. vol. iii, (1838), p, 135, pi, xix, fig, 18. 



t L. Agassiz, ibid. p. 135, pi. xix, tig, 17, 



\ Meyer and Plieninger, Beitr. Palaont, Wiirttembergs (1844), p. 86, 

 pi. xi. tig. 8. 



§ T, Oldham, " On some Fossil Fish-Teeth of the Genus Ceratodus 

 from Mal6di, South of Nagpur," Mem. Geol. Surv. India, vol. i. (1859), 

 pp. 295-309, pis. xiv.-xvi. 



