224 Mr, A. S. Woodward on Coelorhynclius, Agassiz. 



J. van Beneden *, and Winkler f have made known G. 

 rectus and C. Burtini, from the Bruxellian Eocene of Bel- 

 gium ; and Schafhautl \ has described C. sulcatus, from 

 the Eocene of Kressenberg, Bavaria, while erroneously identi- 

 fying another specimen from the same formation with C 

 cretoceus. Similar fossils are known from the Eocene of 

 Alabama, U.S.A. Dames § briefly notices other fragments 

 from corresponding beds in the island of Birket-el-Qurun, 

 Egypt ; and the impression of one small example in the 

 British Museum was obtained from India, probably from the 

 Nummulitic series of Sind 1|. 



Having so wide a distribution, and being everywhere asso- 

 ciated with numerous other fish-remains, it is somewhat 

 remarkable that as yet no clue has been discovered as to the 

 affinities of the genus to which these spines originally per- 

 tained. They have been fully described in some of the works 

 quoted above, and several times figured ; but no naturalist 

 has hitherto succeeded in ofiering a plausible explanation of 

 them, and the large series of examples in the British Museum 

 only adds one new fact to our knowledge of the subject, 

 namely the occasional occurrence of specimens representing 

 fishes of very large size. On referring to the published 

 descriptions it will be observed that the known Cretaceous 

 forms of Ccelorhynchus are relatively small, perhaps not 

 attaining a greater length than 0*14 m. and a maximum 

 diameter of 0*004. Those of the Bracklesham Beds are 

 much larger, one measuring at least 0*26 in length and 

 having a diameter of about 0"013 at the basej while the speci- 

 men now to be described attains to proportions comparatively 

 gigantic. This was obtained from Egypt, having been 

 extracted from the rock of the Great Sphinx and presented 

 to the British Museum in 1838 by Colonel Howard Vyse. 

 The specimen is in three fragments (nos. 893-895) and 

 measures in the widest portion preserved no less than 0*022 

 across. It tapers very gradually as usual, and, if of the same 

 proportions as the Bracklesham fossils, must have originally 



• P. J. van Beneden, " Recherclies sur quelquea Poissons fosailes de 

 Belgique," Bull. Acad. Roy. Belg. [2] vol. xxxi. (1871), p. 161. 



t T. C. Winkler, "M4moire sur les Dents de Poissons du terrain 

 bruxellien," Archiv. Mus. Teyler, vol. iii. (1874), p. 803. 



X K. E. Schafhautl, ' Siid-Bayerns Lethaea Geognostica,' 1863, p. 249, 

 pi. Ixiv. fig. 5. 



§ W. Dames, " Ueber eine tertiare Wirbelthierfauna von der west- 

 lichen Insel des Birket-el-Qurun in Fajum (Aegypten)," SB. k. preuss. 

 Akad. Wiss. 1883, vol. i. p. 148. 



II R. Lydekker, " The Fossil Vertebrata of India," Rec. Geol. Surv. 

 India, vol. xx. (1887), p. 70. 



