306 
FOSSIL FISH FROM THE CHALK OF 
NORTH LINCOLNSHIRE. 
Dr. A. SMITH WOODWARD, F.R.S. 
(British Museum, Natural History). 
Tue fossil fish* obtained by Mr. H. C. Drake from the 
Rhynchonella cuvieri zone in the chalk pit at South Ferriby is 
in a fragmentary condition, and lacks the skull; but the parts 
preserved agree so precisely with the corresponding parts of 
Elopopsts crassus, that the specimen may almost certainly be 
referred to this Elopine species. It agrees with the known 
examples of Elopopsis crassus even in size. The bones of the 
opercular apparatus are remarkably thin, large and smooth, 
showing only a slight waviness parallel with the margins. The 
preoperculum is much expanded at the angle and in the lower 
limit, and bears marks of slime canals which radiate backwards 
from the main slime canal of its anterior border. The vertebral 
centra of the caudal region are about as long as deep, and they 
are strengthened by a few longitudinal ridges which extend 
between the stout anterior and posterior rims. The neural and 
heemal arches are much flattened from side to side, and sharply 
inclined backwards. The scales are very thin, large, and 
deeply overlapping. They exhibit numerous small rounded 
pittings on their exposed portion, but are otherwise smooth, 
and only display their fine concentric lines of growth when 
abraded. A few of the stout pectoral fin-rays are smooth and 
undivided for a long distance at their proximal end. 
The type skull of Zlopopszs crassus was found in a Turonian 
zone at Southeram, near Lewes, Sussex. More satisfactory 
specimens of the fish have been obtained by Mr. G. E. Dibley, 
F.G.S., from the zone of Rhynchonella cuvieri in Peter’s Pit, 
Wouldham, Kent, and will shortly be described in the 
Paleontographical Society’s Monograph of the Fossil Fishes 
of the English Chalk. 
REFERENCES.—Osmeroides crassus, F. Dixon, Geol. Sussex 
(1850), p. 376. lopopsis crassus, A. S. Woodward, Proc. Zool. 
Soe., 1894 (1895) ,"p.7759,epla43; fle. a 
—_—  —o 
‘Bulbs,’ by S. Arnott, and ‘Weather,’ by the Hon. H. A. Stanhope, 
forms Nos. 11 and 12 of the ‘One and All,’ garden books, issued at a penny 
each. They are exceedingly useful publications. 
* Hull Museum Specimen, No. 24.05. 
Naturalist, 
