THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[FOURTH SERIES.] 

 No. 38. FEBllUARY 1S7L 



IX. — Description of a considerable portion of a Mandilndar 

 Ramus o/Anthracosaurus Russelli ; vnth Notes on Loxomma 

 and Archichthys. By Albany Hancock, F.L.S., and 

 Thomas Atthey. 



[Plate VI.] 



In 1862 Profes.sor Huxley made known the presence in tlie 

 Lanarkshire coal-field of a large and powerful Labyrintliodont, 

 to which he gave the name of Anthracosaurus RusselW^. 

 This species was founded on a nearly perfect cranium ; and at 

 the same time a vertebra and a rib supposed to belong to this 

 Amphibian were also described. No further evidence of the 

 existence of this formidable creature of the Carboniferous era 

 was procured till JVIr. Atthey obtained a large portion of an- 

 other cranium belonging to it at Newsham. This interesting- 

 fragment was described, in the September Number of the 

 ' Annals,' in 1869 ; and we gave in the same paper an ac- 

 count of the anterior extremity of a mandibular ramus and of 

 a large sternal plate, which we believed likewise to belong to 

 Anthracosaurus, 



We are not aware that any further account has appeared of 

 the occurrence of remains of this rare Amphibian. It is there- 

 fore with much pleasure that we are enabled, through the 

 kindness of Mr. Ward of Longton, to describe a large fragment 

 of a mandible belonging to this species. This specimen forms 

 part of that gentleman's well-known collection, and is from 

 the new ironstone shale of Fenton. It is a portion of tlie 

 posterior extremity; but the articular process is wanting. The 

 fragment is 7 inches long, and measures nearly 4 inches from 

 the alveolar border (PI. VI. a) to the inferior margin {h). 

 There is just two inches of this margin perfect ; and this is at 

 the point where undoubtedly the ramus is deepest. The inner 

 * Quarterly Journal of the Geological Socipty, vol. xix. p. o6. 



Ann <t- Ma(j. N. Hist. Scr. 4. Vol. vii. 6 



