IN THE MANCHESTER MUSEUM. 33 



The rather deeply fusiform body is shown to have been 

 covered with rhombic scales, which were exceedingly small 

 in proportion to the size of the fish, those in the front of 

 the flank measuring only ^ in. in height and breadth ; only 

 feeble traces of a striated ornament are observable on them. 

 Some large median scales are seen in front of the dorsal fin. 



The scales must also have been very thin, as they 

 have allowed the contour of the bones of the internal 

 skeleton to be tolerably distinctly indicated through them, 

 these indications being in the form of impressions of 

 vertebral arches and spines, and of interspinous bones or 

 fin-supports. The skeleton as thus exhibited is typically 

 Palaeoniscoid. 



The fins which are preserved are of moderate size, even 

 small for the size of the fish. The pectoral is not completely 

 shown, though enough is preserved to show that it consisted 

 of numerous fine closely set rays, which were also closely 

 articulated, the principal rays being also jointed up to their 

 origins. The ventral fin is small and narrow, with fine rays 

 of a character similar to those of the pectoral. The anal 

 is triangular-acuminate, its hinder margin somev/hat con- 

 cavely excavated, and consists likewise of numerous fine 

 closely set rays, whose transverse articulations are extremely 

 close. The dorsal fin is not preserved, but, judging from 

 the position of its supporting ossicles, it must have occupied 

 a position nearly opposite the interval between the ventral 

 and anal. 



The specimen in the museum at Jermyn Street, London, 

 represents a somewhat larger fish, the length from the 

 front of the head to the posterior termination of the base of 

 the anal fin being 8|- in. (about 20 cm.), and here it is 

 broken off, nearly at the very place where the same has 

 happened to the one at Owens College. However, the 

 dorsal fin is preserved, and shows a contour and structure 

 similar to those of the anal in both examples. 



