FOSSIL FISHES. 59 
more or less of the concentric lines, are also faintly marked with radiating, 
beaded lines terminating in sharp teeth at the posterior border. 
Only a single specimen of this little fish has yet been found. It has 
the form and size of Catopterus minor, but differs from that and all other 
species known, in the peculiar and pronounced ornamentation of the seales. 
Most of these are decorated with strong raised lines parallel with the mar- 
gins and running to the posterior point, which is often somewhat prolonged. 
On the sides near the head this ornamentation is joined to or superseded by 
the radiating raised beaded lines terminating in teeth, often though not 
always seen in Catopterus Redfieldi and Catopterus minor. The body must 
have been round or somewhat flattened vertically, since it lies on the ab- 
domen with the middle line of the back uppermost, the position generally 
assumed by the fishes which I have designated by the name of C. minor. 
The general aspect of these fishes is so similar, that I have been inclined to 
consider them as varieties of the same species, but the ornamentation of the 
scales in C. ornatus is so marked, that I do not feel authorized to unite them 
without better evidence than I now possess. 
The ornamentation described above is on the same plan with that of 
the seales of Celacanthus elegans from the Coal Measures, but the number of 
raised and converging lines is less in the Triassic fish. 
Figs. 8a and 30 represent the scales enlarged to show the ornamenta- 
tion, the former the ovate scales of the dorsal line, the latter the rhomboidal 
scales of the sides. 
CaTopTeRuS ANGUILLIFoRMIS W. C, R. 
pl. XVII, Fig. 5. 
W GC. Redfield describes a species of Caiopterus in the following words:' 
Catopterus anguilliformis W. C.K. (Hel shaped Catopterus).—This remarkable 
species, as hitherto found, is from seven to nearly ten inches in length; width, half to 
three-fourths of an inch. It has a finely-forked and extended caudal fin of delicate 
structure; a well-extended dorsal; and all the fins are fringed with the fine raylets 
which pertain to this genus. The impressions of the fins are usually but faintly visi- 
ble, owing, probably, to their delicate structure. The scales are equally indistinet, 
and the impression of the head is seldom visible. 
Found at Westfield and Middletown, Conn.; Boonton, N. J.; and, as I have been 
informed, at Sunderland, Mass. 
1 Amer. Jour. Sei., vol. 41, 1841, p. 27. 
