On Fossil Fishes from South Africa. 393 



LVII. — Further Notes on Fossil Fishes from the Karoo 

 Formation of South Africa. By A. Smith WOODWARD, 

 F.L.S. 



[Plate XVn.] 



A LIST of all tlie known fossil fishes from the Karoo formation 

 of South Africa was given in these pages four years ago *, 

 and since that time only one additional species seems to have 

 been recorded f. It is gratifying now to be able to extend 

 the list by adding no less than four new forms ; and the 

 following brit'f descriptions are published in the hope that 

 they may lead to tiie discovery of more satisfactory specimens 

 than any of those at present available. For this new evidence 

 the writer is indebted to David Draper, Esq., of Newcastle, 

 Natal, and to Professor H. G, Seeley, F.R S., the former 

 having brought to Europe for determination the species 

 numbered 1 and 4, the latter having discovered those num- 

 bered 2 and 8 during his visit to Cape Colony a few years ago. 



1. Dictyoiiyqe (?) Draper i^ sp. n. 

 (PI. XVII. fig. 1.) 



Type. — The type and only known specimen of this species 

 is shown of the natural size in the accompanying PI. XVII. 

 fig. 1. Apart from some fracturing, it is complete and scarcely 

 distorted as far as the caudal pedicle ; but the caudal tin, the 

 most important feature in the fish, is unfortunately wanting. 

 It is preserved in the National Museum, Bloemfontein, Orange 

 Free State. 



Description. — The proportions of the fish indicated in tiie 

 figure are probably almost natural, the length of the head with 

 opercular apparatus being about equal to the maximum depth 

 of the trunk and contained perhaps five times in the total 

 length. The head is much fractured, but impressions of the 

 cranial bones seem to exhibit traces of a rugose ornament, 

 and the hinder portion of the mandible is distinctly marked 

 with longitudinal striations. Tiie orbit must have been very 

 large, and the maxilla is shaped as in Pala^oniscida^, with a 

 deep posterior plate and a downward inflexion of the postero- 

 inferior angle. There are some remains of conical teeth of 



• A. Smith Woodward, " On Atherdonia,'' Ann. & Mag. Nat. Ili.st. 

 [6] vol. iv. (18«'.»), p. 242. 



t Acruhipis {'t ) diyitata, Smith Woodward, Cat. Fos.-i. Fishes Biit. 

 Mus. pt. ii. (18'Jl), p. .lus, pi. xv. li}i-. 4. 



