Revieivs — Dr. Abel on Fossil Flying Fishes. 271 



distally, and broad and narrow proximally, a common character of 

 TesUido. The peculiarity of the species is the extreme narrowness 

 and thickness of the 5th costal plate, 



II. The specimens of Baena were first briefly described by 

 Mr. Lanibe in " Contributions to Canadian Paleeontology " (vol. iii, 

 4to, pt. 2, 1902, Geological Survey of Canada) — "On Vertebrata of 

 the Mid-Cretaceous of the North- West Territory." They were there 

 referred to Baena Hatclieri, Hay, from the Laramie of Converse 

 County, Wyoming. Further study of the material has led the author 

 to a different conclusion, and he now regards these specimens as 

 belonging to a new species, to which he assigns the name pulclira. 

 They were collected by him in the Belly Eiver (Judith River) Beds 

 of Eed Deer River, Alberta, near the mouth of Berry Creek. They 

 consist of the anterior half of the crushed carapace, with the entire 

 plastron of a single individual, and of the anterior half of the 

 plastron of another individual of slightly larger size. 



Critical remarks are made upon other species of Chelonia from 

 the Belly River series in Canada, viz., Trionyx foveatus, Leidy ; 

 T. vagans, Cope; Adocus lineolatus, Cope; Basilemys variolosus, 

 Cope; Baenn antiqua, Lambe ; and Neuranhylus eximius, Lambe. 

 Three other species from the sama horizon are also referred to ; 

 these are Plastomeims coalescens, Cope ; P. costatus, Cope ; and 

 €ompsemys ogmius, Cope. A. H. F. 



IV. — Fossil Flying Fishes. 



FossiLE Flugfisohe. By O. Abel. Jahrb. k.k. geol. Eeichsanst., 

 vol. Ivi (1906), pp. 1-88, pis. i-iii, text-figs. 1-13. 



^R. ABEL has recently made an exhaustive study of the ganoids 

 with large pectoral fins occurring in the Trias of Austria, 

 Germany, and Italy. He has arrived at the conclusion that their 

 outward shape was very similar to that of the existing ' flying fishes ' 

 of the genus Exoccelus. He has therefore been led to prepare an 

 elaborate memoir on ' flying fishes ' in general, treating them both 

 from the geological and from the biological point of view. 



Thoracopteriis Niederristi, the ' flying fish ' of the Alpine Trias, 

 was discovered long ago, but Dr. Abel has had the opportunity 

 of adding much to our knowledge of its structure. He shows that 

 the fins are arranged exactly as in the modern Exocoetm, with the 

 lower lobe of the deeply forked tail distinctly larger than the upper 

 lobe. At the same time he agrees with the determination of the 

 British Museum Catalogue, that the fish is merely an aberrant 

 member of the family Pholidophoridaj. 



Thoracoptenis is covered with regular rows of rhombic ganoid 

 scales, but Dr. Abel now describes for the first time a contemporaneous 

 fish of nearly the same shape, which is characterised b}'^ at least 

 partial absence of scales. This new genus and species, named 

 Gigantopteriis Telleri, is founded on a well-preserved specimen about 

 seven inches in length from the Upper Trias of Lunz. 



