CLASPING ORGANS OF AMPHIBIA. 



251 



In 1 88 1 Stock reviewed the work on the clasping organs or 

 " Kammplatten " and gave figures of several forms which were 

 found in the coal of North- 

 umberland county of En- 

 gland 1 (Fig. 1). He re- 

 ferred to several species of 

 fish which had been based 

 on objects identical with the 

 " Kammplatten." In the 

 same year, 1881, Traquair 

 had established a new genus 

 of fish, Eiictenins, on a 

 clasping organ of an am- 

 phibian, obtained from the 

 "Black-band Ironstone" 

 near Edinburgh. 2 In a 

 communication to Stock, 

 Traquair admitted that he 

 had come to this conclusion 

 in regard to the Enctenius. 

 Barkas, in 1869, had de- 

 scribed two species of Cte- 

 noptychius based on remains 

 which are identical with the 



clasping organs in question 3 (Fig. 2). The elements discov- 

 ered and figured by Stock from the Northumberland Coal- 

 measures consisted of objects which he compares in form to a 



Fig. 1. "Kammplatten" from the North- 

 umberland coal of England.- After Stock. 



FlG. 2. " Ctenoptychius" tooth — clasping organ. After Barkas. 



tadpole. They are elongate rods with an expanded end, a rather 

 long narrow handle and a short broad body on one edge of which 



1 Stock, 1881, Ann, and Mag. Nat. Hist., 5th Ser., Vol. VIII., p. 90 with 

 Plate VI. 



2 Traquair, 1881, Geo/. Mag., Decade II., Vol. 8, p. 36. 

 3 Barkas, 1869, Geo/. Mag., Vol. VI., p. 43. 



