.Mr. 'I\ Atthcy ("' I'ahi'i'iiisciis 1 l.iiicocki. Ml 



Puhfonlscus llancinki^ n. .s[). 



This elegant little tb.'^.-^il fish I have ventured to name after 

 my late lamented friend ^Ir. All)any Haneoek. 



It mea.>^ures from 2^ to 'i^\ inehe.s in length, and it.s (le})tii 

 immediately behind the pectoral fin -j^ of an inch ; this is 

 maintained a.s far a.'^ the ventral fin, beyond "which it dimini.she.s 

 toward.s the tail : the body i.s therefore long and .slender. The 

 fins are small ; the articulations of each of the rays of the 

 pectoral are very distant, those of the ventral, anal, and dorsal 

 less so; the rays of the ventral, anal, and dorsal are more slender 

 than those of the pectoral. fSo far as can be made out, the tail 

 is delicate, the upper lobe somewhat longer than the lower. 

 There are two conspicuous rows of scales on the side of the 

 ventral part of the body near the margin : these .•scales are twice 

 as high as they arc wide ; their external surface is smooth, and 

 their posterior margin finely serrated. The other scales are 

 only about half the size of the above mentioned, and of rhom- 

 boidal f<n-m. The head, in length, is about the sixth ])art of 

 the body. The teeth are very minute, and of two sizes (larger 

 and smaller), .sharp-pointed, and set closely in the jaw. The 

 mouth is large ; the maxillie and mandibles and the bones of 

 the upper surface of the skull are C(jvered externally with a 

 delicately sculptured and siiining pattern of convoluted ridges 

 and grooves, the former of which are flattened. Tlie oper- 

 culum is large and smooth, the suboperculum less. Eight 

 branch iostegal rays exist, and project beyond the line of the 

 mandible, the one next to the pectoral fin being by far the 

 largest. The lower border of the mandible is furnished with 

 a row of projecting points, continuations of the ridges on the 

 side of the mandible. 



The above characters so clearly separate P. HancocJci from 

 other Paheoni\sci that I am in doubt whether or not it should 

 be ranked as a member of the genus ; but I have given the 

 name Paheoniscus to it p)"Ovisionally, in order to bring the 

 fossil to the notice of paUvontologists. It is from the North- 

 umberland Coal-measures, and has been found in the black 

 shale of the Low Main at XcAvsham, (Jrainlingt(jn, and 

 Kenton. 



Note. — I take the present opportunity of correctiug two 

 eiTors into which Mr. Miall appears to have unconsciously 

 fallen. First, in his paper in the ^Journal' of the Geological 

 Society for December 1874, he .•^ays : — "A restoration of the 

 palate of CfrnoJits cn'sfoftis forms one of the illustrations of 

 Messrs. Hancock and Atthey's series of papers on the Fishes 



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