208 MR. A.S. WOODWARD ON BUCKLANDIUM pDiILUviI. [Apr. 2, 
4. Note on Bucklandium diluvii, Konig, a Siluroid Fish from 
the London Clay of Sheppey. By A. Smirm Woopwarp, 
F.Z.S., F.G.S., of the British Museum (Nat. Hist.). 
[Received March 30, 1889.] 
(Plate XXII.) 
In his well-known ‘Icones Fossilium Sectiles,’ pl. viii. no. 91, 
Konig figured a remarkable fossil from the London Clay of the Isle 
of Sheppey, which he mentioned in the text as not certainly deter- 
minable, but generally regarded by the anatomists who had examined 
it as pertaining to some type of Lizard. In 1843 Morris ’ recognized 
the piscine nature of this fossil and assigned it to the Acantho- 
pterygian Zphippus ; while Pictet * afterwards suspected that it m.ght 
be identical with the so-called Glyptocephalus of Agassiz, which had 
not been described, but was considered to pertain to an early Eocene 
type of Scleroderm Teleostean. 
The unique specimen in question is preserved in the British 
Museum, where it has long been piaced among the fossil fishes of 
uncertain position by Mr. William Davies; and in the Reports of 
the last meeting of the British Association (p. 679) the present writer 
has pointed out that it represents the head and pectoral arch of the 
earliest undoubted Siluroid fish hitherto discovered. The original 
figures of Konig, however, do not suffice for the demonstration of its 
characters ; and it is the object of the present note briefly to describe 
the main points with the aid of the accompanying Plate XXII. 
The fossil exhibits the hinder half of the roof of the skull, with 
the greater portion of the pectoral arch in position, though slightly 
bent backwards; and the mass of anchylosed vertebra, with the 
base of the cranium, is displaced downwards and thrown beneath the 
clavicles. All the bones are remarkably strong, and the exposed 
surfaces are ornamented with irregularly scattered pointed tubercles ; 
but in the extrication from the hardened clayey matrix the precise 
form of the inner elements has unfortunately been destroyed. 
The head must have been originally at least as deep as broad (Plate 
XXII. fig. 1), and the roof exhibits very little flattening, but is strongly 
arched from side to side (fig. 2). Posteriorly, the supraoccipital 
(so.) projects in the usual manner, probably to meet a dermal plate 
upon the nape; and the posttemporal element (pt.) seems to be 
merged with the bones of the postero-lateral angles of the cranium. 
The supraoccipital has been partly broken during extrication from the 
matrix, but a sharp median ridge is seen to extend throughout its 
length, and from this on each side there is a steep slope. The 
frontals (/r.) probably meet in front, and the central crest then 
disappears. All the cravial bones, however, are indistinguishably . 
Morris, ‘ Catalogue of British Fossils,’ p. 193. 
ars 
2 BJ. Pictet, ‘Traité de Paléontologie, 2nd edit., vol. 1. p. 123. 
