354 Mr. A. S. Woodward on 



XLVI. — Note on the Early Mesozoic Ganoid^ Belonorliynclius, 

 and on the sufyosed Liassic Genus Amblynrus. By A. 

 Smith Woodwaed, F.G.S., F.Z.S., of the British Mu- 

 seum (Natural History). 



I. Belonoehykchus, Bronn. 



Thiety years ago Dr. H. G. Bronn * described a remarkable 

 fossil fish, presumably " Ganoid," from the Upper Trias of 

 Eaibl, Carinthia, assigning to it the generic name of Belono- 

 rhynchus, in allusion to the length of its Belone-Y^ko, snout. 

 Eight years later Prof. Rudolph Kner f had the opportunity 

 of examining fifty other well-preserved specimens from the 

 same locality ; and the character of the genus and its type 

 species, B. striolatus^ are thus defined with considerable accu- 

 racy and completeness. The head has an enormously pro- 

 duced snout, its total length being nearly equal to that of the 

 whole of the body behind ; it is superficially ornamented with 

 transverse ruga^ ; the lower jaw is as long as the upper ; and 

 there are large widely-spaced teeth, with smaller ones inter- 

 vening. Both pairs of tins are present, comparatively small, 

 and the pelvics are placed far behind ; the single dorsal and 

 anal fins are nearly equal in size, opposite, and very remote ; 

 and the caudal fin is symmetrical, slightly forked. The body 

 is slender and destitute of ordinary scales, but ridged botli 

 dorsally and ventrally by a single series of much elongated, 

 distally pointed, overlapping scutes, which become especially 

 long and needle-shaped upon the tail, beyond the dorsal and 

 anal fins ; the lateral line is also supported on each side by a 

 row of broad scutes. 



The head of this fish is so similar to that of Btlonostomus 

 that Bronn {he. cit. p. 12) was originally led to suspect that 

 the Liassic species B. acutus and B. Anniiigia^, named by 

 Agassiz X upon the evidence of the head alone, might truly 

 belong to Belonorhynchus. Zittel § has recently remarked 

 that the first of these certainly does belong to the latter genus, 

 though without publishing the evidence ; and I am now able 



* H. G. Bronn, " BeitrJige zur triasisclien Fauna imd Flora der bitu- 

 minosen Scbiefer von ilaibl/' Neiies Jabrb. 1858, pp. 7-12, pi. i. figs. 1-10. 



t li. Kner, " Die Fiscbe der bituminosen Scbiefer von Kaibl in Karn- 

 then," SB. Akad. Wiss. Wien, matb.-uaturw. CI. liii. pt. 1 (18tJG), 

 pp. 189-196, pi. vi. 



X L. Agassiz, Recb. Poiss. Foss. vol. ii. pt. 2, pp. 142, 143, pi. xlvii a. 

 figs. 3, 4. 



§ K. A. von Zittel, Handb. der Paljeont. vol. iii. (1887), p. 222. 



