A HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE 



The ganoids, or enamel-scaled fishes, of the Staffordshire Coal 

 Measures include a considerable number of species belonging to the 

 primitive fringe-finned group (Crossopterygii), now represented by the 

 bichir and the reed-fish (Polypteridae) of the rivers of tropical Africa. 

 In the Palaeozoic family Rhizodontidae, characterized by the foldings of 

 the walls of the base of the teeth in a manner recalling that of the 

 labyrinthodonts, we have, in the first place, two species of the genus 

 Strepsodus from Longton, namely S. sauroides and S. sulcidens, the former 

 being widely distributed in the British Coalfields, while the latter is- 

 known elsewhere from Midlothian and Northumberland. The second 

 Staffordshire member of the family is the widely distributed Rhizodopsif 

 sauroides, of which remains are recorded from Fenton. The allied family 

 Osteolepididae, in which the walls of the teeth are less folded while the 

 scales are rhomboidal (instead of cycloidal) and more fully enamelled, is 

 represented by four species, Megalichthys bibberti, M. coccolepis, M. inter- 

 medius, and M. pygmaeus, of which the first is very widely distributed, 

 while neither of the others is peculiar to, or typically from, the county. 

 Finally, in the family Coelacantbidae, characterized by the cycloidal scales 

 and (in the fossil state) the hollow spines of the vertebrae, we have the 

 species Cae/acanthus e/egans, which although typically from the Coalfields 

 of Ohio, is also common in those of England. 



Passing on to the fan-finned group (Actinopterygii), we have among 

 the section Chondrostei, or sturgeon-like fishes, numerous representatives 

 of the extinct families Palaeoniscidae and Platysomatidae. Both these, it 

 may be observed, are fully scaled types, the former characterized by the 

 elongated, and the latter by the deep contour of the body. In the first- 

 named of these a fish from the Deep-Mine Ironstone Shale of Longton, 

 at first described under the name of Microconodus mo/yneuxi, has been 

 provisionally included in the genus Gonatodus, although its real systematic 

 position is still uncertain. To the same family belongs Cycloptychius car- 

 bonarius, typified by a fish from the aforesaid bed at Longton, collected 

 by Mr. Ward, and the type of the genus. The allied Rhadinicbthys is 

 represented by the four species, R. ivardt, R. monensis, R. macrodon, and 

 R. planti, of which the first and third arc peculiar to the county. Of 

 the genus JLlonicbtbys, which is more nearly allied to the typical Permian 

 Pa/aeom'scus, no less than five species have been recorded from the Car- 

 boniferous of the county, although some of these are still imperfectly 

 known. They are E. semistriafus, from the Knowles Ironstone Shale of 

 Fenton, E. aitkeni, from the Lower Coal Measures and Millstone Grit of 

 North Staffordshire, E. egertoni, from Silverdale, Fenton, Longton, and 

 Hanley, E. microlepidotus, from Longton, and E. oblongus, from Fenton. 

 All but the second were described from Staffordshire specimens, and the 

 last two are known only from the county. Another species peculiar 

 to the county is Eurylepis angtica, described in 1894 by Dr. R. H. 

 Traquair 18 on the evidence of a specimen from the Ash Shale of 

 Longton. 



18 Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (6), xiv, 372 (1894). 

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