344 FOSSILS FROM THE 



table [Spec. 1 9], — style-like bones connected with thescapular 

 belt of Asterolepts, and which Owen regards, when present 

 in our existing fishes, as the homologue of the clavicle, and 

 Cuvier as that of the coraooidan bone, — illustrate this pecu- 

 liarity in a manner equally striking : the head of each style 

 bears the star-like markings, while its body must have tra- 

 versed, like that of its analogue in the ordinary fishes, the 

 integuments of the abdomen. In one specimen of Asterolepis 

 before us, which I lately received from Mr Dick, and which 

 exhibits several portions of the head not previously shown, 

 there appear what seem to be the upper maxillary bones, of 

 the animal [large spec. 20], — ^bones which, in some of its con- 

 temporaries, such as the Dipterus, Osteolepis, and Diplopterus, 

 were wanting. In Osteolepis and Diplopterus, the interior 

 end of each intermaxillary rested in a groove delicately chi- 

 selled on the side of the snout ; and we find no place for 

 upper maxillaries, and no use for them. [Spec. 21.] 



In the new ichthyolite, still unfurnished with a name, the 

 under jaw consisted of at least four bones : judging from 

 appearances, and the analogy furnished by the central key of 

 the under jaw of Dipterus, I am inclined to think, of five. 

 There were two pieces on each side [Spec. 22'\, not pieced to- 

 gether transversely, as in the jaws of the ordinary fishes, but 

 longitudinally, — the slimmer of the two forming a sort of 

 nether intermaxillary bone, which composed what I may term 

 the creature's under lip, and contained a row of ichthyic teeth. 

 It was not a free bone, like the true intermaxillaries ; but we 

 find it not unfrequently disunited from the massier bone on 

 which it rested, and embedded in a detached form among the 

 rocks. [Spec. 23.] The Holoptychius of the Upper Old Red 

 Sandstone was also furnished, as shown byoneof my specimens, 

 with a nether intermaxillary of the character which seems to 

 have been greatly more slender, in proportion to its length, 

 than that of the unnamed fish, and was simply a slip oi lath of 



