and Palfeophonus caleJ.onicus. *'•";"> 



tlie finger beinpf preserved onlv .ns an imprint : it is lianl to 

 docidi', for nil these stnictiires have been exposed by tlie 

 mechanical and chemical removal of matrix, and are therefore 

 not so clear as could be wished. The outer margin of the 

 fixed fincrer has a slijirht concave curvature. The distance 

 between the in?ier edges of the two fingers at their proxunal 

 ends is about 2 mm., at their distal ends 6*o mm. The 

 separation of the fingers at the l)ase, the presence of a finger- 

 lobe, and the considerable width of the hatid are characters 

 which, when taken together, suggest that this chela belonged 

 to a male. The relations of the fingers and of the keels seem 

 to indicate that it was the chela of the right side. 



This description has been given in some detail, partly 

 because it was high time for the holotype of a genotype to 

 receive a descrijition of some sort, partly because Mr. Pocock 

 in his classification lays great stress on the characters of the 

 chela, and in this particular instance says " the species may 

 be distinguished at once from all other Carboniferous Scorpions 

 in which the chela is known by the shape and proportions of 

 the segments of this appendage.'^ Even if Mr. Pocock had 

 examined the specimen he could not have seen the shape and 

 proportions of the segments, because, like the Spanish fleet, 

 they were not yet in sight. 



Since, moieover, Mr. Pocock admits the possibility of tlie 

 paratypes — the tails from Skegby (I. 994 />) and Sandwoll 

 Park (I. 5432) — Lelcnging to a different species or even 

 genus, it must be on the ciiaracters of tlie chela alone that he 

 founds his genus Paheomachiis. Those characters he gives 

 as: " Hand broad and oval, its width greatly exceeding that 

 of the bracliium, its length exceeding that of the fini^crs, 

 which are short and in contact when closed, the length of the 

 immovable digit about equal to the width of the hand." 

 This must now be altered as follows: — Hand broad, sub- 

 quadrate, twice as wide as brachium, shorter than fingers, 

 ■which are long and slender [and may or may not have been 

 in contact when closed], the movable finger being the longer 

 and one-quarter as long again as the han 1. 



It may be added that the toothed inner margin of the 

 fingers shown in the published figures is just as imaginary as 

 the rest of the outline. Whether the margins bore teeth or 

 no I cainiot learn from the specimen, but I incline to think 

 that the outline must have been very much like that of the 

 fingers in Mr. Pocock's figure of Antliracoscorpio dunlopi 

 {op. cit. p. 2'2,). 



It might be inferred from the previously published figures- 

 that the fossil was meant to be represented as having the 

 movable finger on the inner or flexor side of the chela, thus 



