Loiuer Carboniferous Fishes of Eastern Fifeshire. 85 



and haemal arches and spines, at once indicate that its family 

 position is in the Ccelacanthid?e, but its differences from any 

 known genus of this family are very strongly marked. We 

 have, firstly, the abbreviated form of the fish, which is 

 certainly not entirely due to post-mortem shortening up, as 

 the skeletal parts in front of the place where the specimen 

 is truncated lie nearly quite undisturbed ; secondly, the great 

 proportional length of the neural and haemal spines ; thirdly, 

 the apparent absence of the two separate dorsal fins with 

 their compound supporting " axonosts," characteristic of the 

 Coelacanthida3. These 7nai/ have been lost in the present 

 specimen, but the tips of the neural spines come so close 

 up to the dorsal margin that there would not have been 

 room for the last-named elements of the form prevalent in 

 the genera of this family. Fourthly, the median fin, which 

 we see beginning just opposite the posterior termination 

 of the abdominal cavity, corresponds, in its relation to its 

 supporting elements, to the caudal of Goelacanthus, but is 

 immensely farther forward in its commencement. It is 

 unfortunate that, owing to the truncation of the fish shortly 

 after the commencement of this fin, we cannot see the 

 extremity of the tail, but enough is shown in the specimen 

 to prove its novelty, both specific and generic. The acquisi- 

 tion of more perfect specimens is, however, urgently to be 

 desired, as it is clear that, if the dorsal fins with their 

 compound axonosts are really wanting in this form, a change 

 must be made in the received definition of the Coelacanthidse, 

 as well as of the Actinistian group of the Crossopterygii. — 

 (From Ardross, collected by Mr W. Tait Kinnear, and now 

 in the Edinburgh Museum.) 



Eucentriirus paradoxus, n.g. and sp. (Plate V. Figs. 5, 6, 7). 

 — This extraordinary little organism measures 2| inches in 

 length, of which J inch may be allotted to the head, f inch 

 to the body, and l^- inch to the tail. The head is a mass 

 of calcareous matter, in which something suggestive of a 

 broad curved mandible can be seen, but admits of no further 

 description. The body, f inch broad in front, is composed 

 of a greyish film, which, when examined by a strong lens, 

 is seen to consist entirely of minute, slender, slightly- curved 



