THE 



aEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 



NEW SERIES. DECADE IV. VOL. V. 



No. VII.— JULY, 1898. 



o:RXG-xisrj^x, jlisticiles. 



I. — Preliminary Note on a New Specimen of Squatina from 



THE Lithographic Stone of Nusplingen, Wurtemberg. 



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



PLATE X. 



SEVERAL specimens of extinct species of the angel-fisli or monk- 

 fish {Squatina) are already known from the Lithographic Stone 

 (Lower Kimmeridgian) of Bavaria, Wurtemberg, and France ; and 

 some of these are in an admirable state of preservation. Two forms 

 are clearly distinguishable — the one a small fish not more than 

 0'15 rn. in length, with a dense armour of rounded dermal tubercles 

 on the anterior border of the head and each of the paired fins, and 

 upon the lateral aspect of the tail ; ^ the other a comparatively large 

 fish, attaining a length of at least a metre, without any similar 

 development of the dermal tubercles, either in the regions mentioned 

 or on any other part of the body. 



An imperfect example of the latter fish from Eichstadt, Bavaria, 

 was originally described by Miinster^ under the name of Thaumas 

 alifer, and subsequently referred by GiebeP to the existing genus 

 Squatina. Some years afterwards a finer specimen, either of the 

 same or a closely allied species, from Nusplingen, Wiirtemberg, was 

 described in detail by Fraas * under the name of Squatina acantho- 

 dermn. In 1859 the specific identity of this fish with the Eichstadt 

 fossil was first maintained by Von Meyer ; ® and still more recently 

 the same opinion was expressed by Von Zittel,^ who briefly described 

 and figured a nearly complete example from Eichstadt more than 

 a metre in length. Quite lately an equally fine specimen has been 

 obtained by Mr. B. Stiirtz from the classical quarry at Nusplingen ; 

 and it is thus possible now to compare complete examples of the fish 

 from the Bavarian and Wiirtemberg localities. 



^ Squatina speciosa, H. von Me}'er : Palseontographica, vol. vii (1859), p. 4, 

 pi. i, %. 2. 



2 Munster, " Beitr. Petrefakt.," pt. v (1842), p. 62, pi. vii, fig. 1. 



3 Giebel, " Fauna der Vorwelt— Fische " (1847), p. 298. 



* 0. Fraas, Zeitschr. deutsch. geol. Ges., vol. vi (1854), p. 782, pis. xxvii-xxix. 



* H. von Meyer, Palseontogr. , vol. vii (1859), p. 3. 



« K. A. von Zittel, " Handbuch der Palaeontologie," vol. iii (1887), p. 92, fig. 105. 



DECADE IV. VOL. V. — NO. VII. 19 



