Dr B. H. Traquair on Fossil Fishes from Oil Shales. 115 



north-east; but in Professor Geikie's opinion they belong 

 to the same general horizon as those at West Calder. The 

 fish remains, which they contain, occur in nodules which are 

 very similar in character to those of the last-named locality. 



(1.) Acanthodes sp. 



The remarkable group of extinct fishes constituting the 

 family Acanthodidce, concerning whose structure and system- 

 atic position so much has still to be learned, is, as is well 

 known, abundantly represented by genera and species in the 

 Lower Old Eed Sandstone of Scotland. Of these Old Eed 

 Acanthodians (Acanthodes, Cheiracanthus, Dij^lacanthtts, Eua- 

 canthus, Climatms, Farexus) the writings of H. Miller, Agassiz, 

 Sir Philip Grey-Egerton, and Powrie, contain abundant illus- 

 tration. Above the Old Eed Sandstone the family seems 

 to have fallen away in numbers and importance, though the 

 remains of fishes belonging to it are traceable through the 

 carboniferous into the Lower Permian. The latter forma- 

 tion has in Germany, though only one genus {Acanthodes) is 

 represented, yielded the beautiful specimens from which the 

 elaborate descriptions of Quenstedt,* Troschel,-!* Eoemer,:]: 

 and Kner,§ have been drawn up. 



A great deal has, however, yet to be done in the way of 

 working out the Acanthodidce of the carboniferous strata. 

 Eemains of Acanthodian fishes are, it is true, pretty generally 

 diffused throughout this formation in Great Britain. De- 

 tached spines, bones, and portions of the shagreen-like scaly 

 covering, are not uncommon in the Calciferous Sandstone 

 series of Scotland, from the Wardie shales upwards, as well 

 as in the " edge coal " strata of the Carboniferous Limestone 

 series ; while both in England and Scotland such relics are of 

 frequent occurrence in the fish-bearing shales of the coal- 



* Handbuch der Petrefactenkunde, Tiibingen, 1851. 



t Beobaclitungen iiber die Fische in den Eisennieren des Saarbriicker Steiu- 

 koblengebirges, Verh. naturh. Ver. des preuss. Bheinl. xiv. 1857. 



t Ueber Fiseb und Pflanzen-fiibrende Mergelscbiefer des Kothliegendes, 

 etc. Zeitscb. der deutscben geol. Gesellsch, ix. 1857. 



§ Ueber Conchopoma gadiforme, nov. gen. & sp., und Acanthodes aus dem 

 Eotbliegenden von Lebach bei Saarbriicken in Eheinpreussen, Sitzungsb. 

 Wien. Ac, Ivii. 1868. 



