A. Smith Woodward — The English Wealden Fish-Fauna. 69 



V. — Note on the Affinities of the English Wealden Fish- 

 Fauna. 



By Arthur Smith "Woodward, F.L S., F.G.S., 

 Of the British Museum (Natural History) . 



THE question of the affinities of the Wealden Vertebrate Fauna 

 having been re-opened by Professor Marsh in his paper on the 

 Dinosauria, read before the last meeting of the British Association 

 at Ipswich, 1 it may be of interest to place on record a complete list 

 of the species of fishes now known from the English Wealden 

 deposits. This is more extensive than any previous list, being- 

 based on the unique collection in the British Museum, which has 

 only lately been examined in detail. Unfortunately, however, none 

 of the specimens, except a few examples of Lepidotus, are labelled 

 to indicate the precise horizon from which they were obtained ; and 

 scarcely any of the names of localities are very definite. The various 

 species may be enumerated in zoological order as follows: — 

 Hybodus basanus, Egerton, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. i (1845), p. 197, pi. iv ; 



A. S. Woodward, Catal. Foss. Fishes Brit. Mus., pt. i (1889), p. 273 L pl. xii, 



figs. 1-5, and Proc. Yorksh. Geol. and Polyt. Soc., vol. xii (1891), p. 63, 



pi. i, pi. ii, fig. 1. Coast of Sussex and Isle of "Wight. 

 Hybodus striatulus, Agassiz, Poiss. Foss., vol. iii (1837), p. 44, pi. viii£, fig. 1. 



Tilgate Forest. 

 Hybodus subcarinalus, Agassiz, ibid. p. 46, pi. x, figs. 10-12. Sussex. 

 Hybodus sp. : miscellaneous' teeth, some named Meristodon paradoxus by Agassiz, 



op. cit., vol. iii (1843), p. 286, pi. xxxvi, figs. 53-56, others figured in 



Catal. Foss. Fishes Brit. Mus., pt. i (1889), pi. xi, figs. 14-16. Tilgate 



Forest. 

 Acrodus hirudo, Agassiz, op. cit., vol. iii (1839), p. 148, pi. xxii, fig. 27; A. S. 



Woodward, op. cit., pt. i (1889), p. 296, pi. xiii, fig. 9. Tilgate Forest, 



and Telham, near Battle. 

 Acrodus ornatus, A. S. Woodward, op. cit., pt. i (1889), p. 296, pi. xiii, fig. 10. 



Brixton, Isle of Wight. 

 Asteracanthus % granulosus, Egerton, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. [2], vol. xiii (1854), 



p. 434, and Figs, and Descript. Brit. Organic Bemains, dec. viii. (Mem. 



Geol. Surv., 1855), No. 1, pi. i. Tilgate Forest. 

 Lepidotus Mantelli, Agassiz, op. cit., vol. ii (1833-37), pt. i, pp. 9, 262, pi. xxx, 



figs. 10-15, pi. xxx«, figs. 4-6, pi. xxxb, fig. 2, pi. xxxe, figs. 1-7. 



Including Lepidotus Fittoni, Agassiz {ibid., p. 265, pi. xxx, figs. 4-6, pi. 



xxx«, excl. tigs. 4-6, pi. xxxi, excl. fig. 2), and Tetragonolepis mastodonteus, 



Agassiz {ibid., p. 216, pi. xxiiie, figs. 3, 4). Sussex. 

 Ccelodus Mantelli (Agassiz), Heckel, Denkschr. k. Akad. Wiss., math.-naturw. 



CI. vol. vi (1856), p. 203 ; Pycnodus Mantelli and Gyrodus Mantelli, Agassiz, 



op. cit., vol. ii, pt. ii, pp. 196, 234, pi. lxix«, fig. 18, pi. lxiia, figs. 6-14. 



Sussex. 

 Caturus sp., A. S. Woodward, op. cit., pt. iii (1895), p. 350. Hastings. 

 ifeorhombolepis valdensis, A. S. Woodward, ibid., p. 356, pi. viii, fig. 5. Hastings. 

 Belonostomus sp., A. S. Woodward, ibid., p. 439. Isle of Wight. 

 Oliyopleurus vectensis, A. S. Woodward, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1890, p. 346, pi. xxviii, 



fig. 1. Isle of Wight. 



Nine genera of fishes are thus represented in the English 

 Wealden, and all, except Caturus, are known by sufficiently 

 characteristic specimens to be determined with certainty. 



Of these fishes, the three Elasmobranchs Hybodus, Acrodus, 

 and Asteracanthus are essentially Jurassic. The beautiful examples 

 of the skeleton of Hijbodns basanus from the Sussex coast prove 

 1 Abstract published in Geol. Mag. [4], Vol. Ill, pp. 1-9 (1896). 



