ARTICLE I. — On the Occurrence of the Genus Belonostomus in the Rolling 

 Downs Formation (Cretaceous) of Central Queensland, by R. Etheridge, 

 JuNR., Paleontologist to the Geological Survey of New South Wales, 

 Sydney, and Arthur Smith Woodward, F.Z.S., &c., of the Department of 

 Geology, British Museum (Nat. Hist.), London. (With Plate I.) 



I. Introduction. 



The fine specimen about to be described was entrusted to our care by Mr. 

 George Sweet, of Brunswick, Melbourne, by whom it was obtained when on a 

 collecting tour in Central Queensland, during the year before last (1889); together 

 with many other very interesting fossils, which one of the present writers hopes some 

 day to have the pleasure of working out. 



The principal fossil exhibits a long, slender fish, with deep narrow ganoid scales 

 and feeble fins, bent upon itself at about the middle point, and wanting the greater 

 part of the head. The remains are preserved on counterpart slabs, one side being 

 shown, reduced one-half in Plate I., Fig. 1, while various details are illustrated of 

 the natural size in the accompanying Figs. 2-7. 



The information afforded by this specimen is supplemented by four other 

 fragments in a similar matrix, numbered M. 31, M. 26 A, M. 28, and M. 30 respectively. 

 The first exhibits an imperfect cranium, much fractured and imbedded in hard rock. 

 In the second the remains of the giU arches are preserved. No. M. 28 shows part 

 of the operculum, supraclavicle, supratemporals, and adjoining scales in counterpart ; 

 and No. M. 30 is a connected series of six large vertebral centra, bearing parts of tiieir 

 arches. Taken together, the specimens make known nearly all the more important 

 features in the skeleton of the fish ; and it is at once obvious that we are concerned 

 with an unusually large species of the well-known Upper Mesozoic "Ganoid" 

 Belonostomus* , and with which we have much pleasure in associating the name of 

 Mr. Sweet as B. sweeti. 



Species that are apparently allied have already been recorded from the Upper 

 Cretaceous of Western Europe, India, and Brazil ; and the present discovery is of 

 great interest as extending still further the ascertained geographical range of the 

 genus during Cretaceous times. 



* L. Agassiz, Poisa. Fosg., 1884, II., Pt. 2, p. 140. 



