1903.] Hay, Cretaceous Fishes from Mount Lebanon, Syria. 4^5 



Dr. A. S. Woodward has called our attention to the fact 

 that the name Holcolepis antedates Osmeroides as a name for 

 the species of this genus (Cat. Foss. Fishes, IV, p. 11). 



ICHTHYODECTID^. 



Eubiodectes, gen. nov. 



Teeth in sockets? Vertebrae with lateral grooves; the 

 centra pierced by the notochord. Some of the anterior pec- 

 toral rays expanded distally, and longitudinally divided. 

 Anal fin elongated, falcate in front. Type, Chirocentrites 

 lihanicus Pictet and Humbert. Derivation of name, evfiLo<s, . 

 well-living; and SrJKTrj'i, a biter. 



Eubiodectes libanicus, (Pict. and Humb.). 



Plate XXX, Figure i. 



Chirocentrites libanicus Pictet and Humbert, Nouv. Rech. Poiss. 

 Foss. Mt. Liban, 1866, p. 88, pi. xiii. — Davis (J. W.), Trans. Roy. 

 Dublin Soc. (2), III, 1887, p. 585. 



Ichthyodectes libanicus Woodward (A. S.), Cat. Foss. Fishes, IV, 

 1901, p. 105. 



This species has been referred by Dr. Woodward to the 

 genus Ichthyodectes. However, a comparison with /. anaides, 

 the type of Ichthyodectes, will convince one that the Syrian 

 species belongs elsewhere. In /. anaides the anterior pectoral 

 ray is very stout, but it does not expand distally; and I know 

 of no evidence that its distal end was split into fine filaments. 

 It formed rather a sort of spine, like that of Portheus. The 

 succeeding rays were considerably smaller than the anterior 

 one and were distally divided, as is usually the case with 

 such rays. In /. anaides the notochord seems not to have 

 passed continuously through the centrum of the vertebra; 

 but in the Syrian species under consideration there was free 

 communication between the concave ends of the centrum. 

 In this Syrian species the anal fin is very long; we have no 

 proof that it was so in the American species of Ichthyodectes. 

 For these reasons I place the Chirocentrites lihanicus of Pictet 

 and Humbert in a distinct genus. I have not seen the teeth, 



