Mr. A. S. Woodward on a new yS'pecees o/" Semionotus. 175 



The two prominent characters which separate this species 

 from the last are the want of frontal excavation and the very 

 narrow space between the ejes in the male. 



I possess three examples from Miyanoshita and one from 

 Kashiwagi. 



XVIII. — On a new Species of Semionotus, from the Lower 

 Oolite of Brora^ Sutherlandshire. Bj A. Smith Wood- 

 WAED, F.Q.S., F.Z.S., of the British Museum (Natural 

 History) . 



[Plate VII.] 



Theough the kindness of Prof. J. W. Judd, F.R.S., I have 

 received from the Rev. J. M. Joass, LL.D., of Grolspie, 

 Sutherlandshire, some examples of an interesting fossil ganoid 

 fish, from the Lower Oolites exposed in that district upon 

 the coast. The specimens were discovered in a block of 

 carbonaceous shale, believed by Dr. Joass to have been de- 

 rived from the bed underlying the main seam of lignite in 

 Strath Brora ; and, as will appear from the description and 

 figures, they are referable to a hitherto unknown species of 

 Semionotus^ adding one or two important items to our know- 

 ledge of the skeleton of this early genus *. Detached scales 

 have already been recorded by Prof. Judd f, but no remains 

 sufiiciently perfect for specific determination seem to have 

 been previously met with. 



The most complete fossil (PI. VII. fig. 1) shows the general 

 form of the fish, with all the fins except the pelvic pair j but 

 the shape and relations of the bones in the cephalic region 

 have been rendered almost undistinguishable by crushing. A 

 second specimen, with a portion of its counterpart, but desti- 

 tute of the caudal fin, is even more dilapidated, though ex- 

 hibiting some of the bones of the head and opercular folds. 

 A fragment of a third individual shows a well-preserved 

 pectoral fin and the upper lobe of the caudal pedicle ; while a 

 fourth is represented by its apparently entire caudal fin. A 

 detached maxilla also displays the characters of that bone 

 and its dentition. 



* The most complete description of Semionotus hitherto published is 

 by J. Striiver, " Die fossilen Fische aus dem Obern Keupersandstein von 

 Oobm-g," Zeitschr. d. deutsch. geol. GeseUsch. vol. xvi. (1864) pp. 305- 

 321, pi. xiii. 



t J. W. Judd, "The Secondary Rocks of Scotland.— Part I.," Quart. 

 Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxix. (1873) p. 194 (table). 



