PALAEONTOLOGY 1267014 



represented in the Chalk of the county by two species of the extinct 

 genus Hoplopteryx. The first of these, H. iewesiensis (the Zeus kwcsiensis 

 of Mantell, and the Beryx ornatus of Agassiz and Dixon), was named 

 on the evidence of a specimen from Lewes now in the British Museum ; 

 the second, H. superbiis (the Beryx superbus of Dixon), was described 

 from a Southeram fossil, and has also been collected at Brighton. 

 Another member of the same family, Hotnonotus dorsalis, described from 

 a Kentish specimen in the Brighton Museum, and the only known 

 representative of its genus, also occurs in the Sussex Chalk. A family 

 [Stromateida) more nearly allied to the mackerels is represented in the 

 Chalk of the county by Berycopsis elegam, a genus and species founded 

 on a Lewes specimen in the Brighton Museum, and also recorded from 

 Clayton. Another specimen in the same collection, from Steyning, 

 described by Dixon as Stenostoma pulchellum, may indicate a second species 

 of the same genus. 



Finally, in the family of horse-mackerels or Carangidce we have a 

 species from Washington near Worthing, originally described as Microdon 

 nuchalis, but now known as JEpichthys nuchalis ; the other member of the 

 genus occurring in the Cretaceous of Istria and the Lebanon. 



The Wealden formation being of freshwater origin, it is only 

 natural to expect that it should yield remains of mammals, since those 

 animals were in existence long before the epoch in question. Hitherto 

 however only two specimens which can be regarded as undoubtedly 

 mammalian have been obtained from Wealden strata, both of these 

 coming from Hastings. The first is a molar tooth of a very small 

 mammal identified by its describer. Dr. Smith Woodward,^ with a 

 Purbeck genus, and named Plagiaulax dawsoni \ its geological horizon 

 is the Wadhurst Clay. The second specimen, an incisor tooth, is from 

 the Tilgate Grit, and was described by the present writer,^ although not 

 named. 



The lower end of a leg-bone (femur) from Ansty Lane near 

 Cuckfield has been described by Professor H. G. Seeley ^ as probably 

 belonging to a Wealden bird, but the opinion has been expressed that 

 it is crocodilian rather than avian. 



Among the reptiles of the Wealden, remains of several species of 

 pterodactyles, or flying saurians, have been described, several of these 

 specimens having been originally regarded as referable to birds. Pro- 

 visionally, at any rate, all these pterodactyles may be included in the 

 Cretaceous genus Ornithochirus. The species O. clavirostris was founded 

 on part of an upper jaw from the Hastings Sands of St. Leonards ; 

 O. clifti, which is known from Battle, Cuckfield, Hastings and Tilgate 

 Forest, is typified by imperfect wing-bones (humerus) ; O. curtus, of 

 which the exact locality is unknown, is represented by part of a leg- 

 bone (tibia) in the collection of the British Museum ; and O. cuvieri, 

 typically from Kent, appears to be represented by a specimen from 

 Newtimber in the Brighton Museum. The so-called Pterodactylus 



1 Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1891, 585. 2 Quart. Jouni. Geo/. Sot. xlix. 281. ^ Ibid. Iv. +16. 



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