THE 



GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 



NEW SERIES. DECADE IV. VOL. V. 



¥o. XII.— DECEMBER, 1898. 



I. — Note on a Devonian Ccelaoanth Fish. 

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



STUDENTS of Palaeozoic fishes are indebted to Professor A. von 

 Koenen, of Gottingen, for two interesting memoirs on the 

 fragmentary fish-remains of the North German Devonian formations.^ 

 Owing to their incomplete character, however, the Professor is only 

 able to suggest a provisional interpretation of most of the specimens, 

 and the determination of their true nature must be left for future 

 discoveries. 



When visiting Gottingen last year. Professor von Koenen kindly 

 permitted me to examine those of his original specimens which are 

 now in the Geological Museum under his direction. There are many 

 fragments of great interest, including the much discussed Coccosteans 

 and a Macropetalichthys, which are better preserved than tlie others ; 

 but tliere is only one specimen concerning which I am able to make 

 some observations amplifying the description already published. 



The fossil in question is of considerable importance because, if 

 I am correct, it is the first discovered evidence of the Crossopterygian 

 family Caslacanthidos in the Devonian period. The Ccelacanth fishes 

 are known to range, w^ith very little modification, from the base of 

 the Carboniferous to the summit of the Cretaceous. They are 

 completely developed on their first appearance in the Calciierous 

 Sandstones of southern Scotland. Their ancestors must thus be 

 sought in the Devonian rocks, where they have hitherto escaped 

 notice both in Europe and North America. 



The specimen is named Holopti/chius Knyseri by Von Koenen, - 

 but he observes that the external ornament of its scales differs so 

 much from that of Holoptychitis that it may represent a new genus 

 for the definition of which the material is insuflBcient. The supposed 

 scales, however, seem to me to be characteristic Coelacanth opercular 

 bones, and several other parts of the Coelacanth head appear to be 

 identifiable. 



^ A. Ton Koeneu, " Beitrag zar Kenntniss der Placodermen des norddeutschen 

 Oberdevons " : Abhandl. k. Ges. Wiss. Gottingen, phys. CI., vol. xxx (1883), 

 pp. 1-41, pis. i-iv. Also, " Ueber einige Fiscbreste des norddeutscbennni bbbmischen 

 Devons" : ibid., toI. xl (1895), pp. 1-37, pis. i-v. 



- Log. cit., 1895, p. 28, pi. ii, tig. 1. 



DECADE IV. VOL. V. yO. XII. 34 



