104 A Retrospect of PaleBontoIogij for Forty Years. 



Museum Geological Collection. In 1886 James William Davis 

 noticed a number of teeth of fishes from Tertiary beds of New 

 Zealand, comprising Lamna, Carcharodon, Notidanus, Myliohatis, etc. 

 He gave a further note on New Zealand Tertiary fishes in 1888, 

 which he referred to the genus Scymnus. He recorded thirteen species 

 of fish-remains from the Carboniferous Limestone of Derbyshire, 

 mostly palatal teeth of Petalodus, Petalorhjnclius, Strehlodus, 

 Psephodus, etc. This bright and promising naturalist and geologist 

 passed away at the early age of 47 years, a victim to overwork. 

 A very interesting Ichthyodorulite named Edestus Davisii, discovered 

 on the Gascoyne, Western Australia, was figured and described by 

 Henry Woodwai'd in 1886 ; this form is now supposed to be the 

 coiled dentition of a Carboniferous shark. Entire coiled examples 

 have been obtained from dejjosits of similar age in Russia by 

 A. Karpinsky. 



Nearly fifty separate papers on fossil fishes have been contributed 

 by two authors in about equal proportions. Dr. R. H. Traquair's 

 extended over 31 years, from 1871 to 1902, and number twenty-three ; 

 Dr. Arthur Smith Woodward's over 17 years, from 1886 to 1903, and 

 number twenty-two. 



Dr. Traquair's first paper, in 1871, dealt with the genus 

 Phaneropleuron from the Lower Carboniferous (Burdiehouse Lime- 

 stone) of Edinburgh, of which genus he gave an excellent plate and 

 a restored outliue (for Dr. Traquair, like Dr. Davidson, is equally 

 facile with pen and pencil, his blackboard sketches as " Swiney 

 Lecturer" being unsurpassed by anyone). In 1873 he described 

 a new Dipnoid fish, Ganorhi/nchus Woodwardi ; and in 1874 

 Cycloptychins carhonavius from the Coal-measures of N. Staftbrdshire. 

 The fish-remains from Borough Lee, near Edinburgh, engaged 

 Traquair's attention, when he published three papers (in 1881), 

 and a fourth one, upon Plenraeanthus horridnlus, in 1882. In 

 1884 he wrote on Ctenacanthis costellatus from Eskdale, and on 

 the genus Megalichthys from the Hugh Miller Collection ; and 

 in 1885 on Psephodus magnns from the Carboniferous Limestone 

 of East Kilbride. In 1886 and 1888 Dr. Traquair wrote on 

 the English Palseoniscidse, and on Chondrosteus acipenseroides, 

 a sturgeon-like fish from the Lias of Lyme Regis, in 1887; on 

 Carboniferous sharks and on the nomenclature of Old Red Fishes 

 in 1888; on Homosteus and Coccosteus and on Dipterus macropterus 

 in 1889. In 1890 Traquair discussed in two papers the Devonian 

 Fishes of Scaumenac Bay and Campbelltown, Canada, including 

 very perfect remains of buckler-coated fishes like Bothriolepis 

 canadensis, Coccosteus, Cephalaspis, and many other genera. He 

 wrote again on fishes from Borough Lee (1890) ; on Myriolepis 

 from the Kilkenny Coalfield in 1893, and on Diplacantlius in 1894. 

 In 1900 Traquair gave restorations of Drepanaspis, a wonderful 

 new Cephalaspid fish from the Devonian Slates of Gmiinden in 

 Western Germany, and he added further and corrected figures in 

 1902. His Address (1900) to the British Association (p. 463) on 

 the bearings of fossil Ichthyology on Evolution was a very important 



