286 REVIEWS 
Kansas likewise offers an equally inviting field. If a single location 
yields up such prodigious possibilities as Mr. White has demonstrated 
what may we not expect from the rest of the vast field! 
(Co 1k. Ikons, 
The Devonian ‘ Lamprey,’ Palaeospondylus Gunni, Traquair. By 
BaSHFORD Dean (Mem. N. Y. Acad. Sci., Vol. II, Part I), 
13899. 
This elaborate memoir of thirty quarto pages and a plate drawn 
and lithographed by the author himself represent a vast amount of 
labor expended on minute, poorly preserved, and what would seem at 
first sight insignificant objects, found in the Caithness flags of Scotland. 
The fossil remains of Palacospondylus are very unsatisfactory for study, 
and but for the peculiar interest attaching to them as supposed repre- 
sentatives of Palaeozoic Lampreys, they would hardly command atten- 
tion. But zodlogists have been eagerly awaiting whatever enlightenment 
palaeontology might offer on the relations and descent of the Cyclo- 
stomes, and when Dr. R. H. Traquair announced his discovery of 
Palaeospondylus in 1890, it was hailed with delight as a definite clew to 
Cyclostome genealogy. 
Dr. Dean observes: ‘‘ Zodlogists were by no means unwilling to 
accept Palacospondylus as a fossil lamprey; and they even found it a 
difficult matter to avoid going out in the road to give it a charitable 
reception. The fossil came, was seen, and was currently accepted. 
But time has gone by and suspicion come, and the thought is by no 
means comforting that the wrong prodigal may have been welcomed. 
Is Palaeospondylus, then, a veritable Cyclostome, or is it at least a pro- 
visional one?”’ Dr. Dean’s purpose in investigating this question is a 
critical one, and he states that he has “‘attempted to analyze the results 
of preceding writers, to contribute some further data to our knowledge 
of the structure of this form, and to endeavor finally to determine what 
conclusions are justified in assigning a place to this fossil. After 
accomplishing all this in very satisfactory fashion, the author takes up 
the classification of fishlike vertebrates in general and introduces some 
novel changes, which will be referred to presently. 
Dr. Dean’s conclusion as to the Marsipobranch nature of Pa/aeo- 
spondylus takes the form of a more emphatic denial than ever (see his 
previous paper in Proc. Zool. Soc., April 1898) that it can be regarded 
