208 A. Smith Woodward — On the Genus Not idanus. 



other — and it is thus possible to restore the dentition of some of the 

 extinct types with a considerable approach to accuracy. 



Of fossil Notidanidee, no undoubted traces have hitherto been 

 recorded from beds beneath the Middle Oolite. Miinster, 1 it is true, 

 mentions a small tooth from the Lias as belonging to Notidanus, but 

 no figure is given, and there is not sufficient proof of the accuracy 

 of the determination. Oppel 2 also makes known another tooth from 

 the Upper Lias of Swabia, which he ventures to name specifically 

 N. Amalthei, though evidently recognizing the slenderness of the 

 grounds for this procedure ; his figure shows nothing beyond a 

 laterally-compressed cone, and neither this nor the description 

 suffices to distinguish it from the tooth of a large Oxygnathus. It is 

 further interesting to note that Tate and Blake 3 have recorded 

 Oppel's species from the Middle Lias of Whitby, and this determi- 

 nation is equally unreliable : the original fossil is said to be pre- 

 served in the Whitby Museum, but Mr. Martin Simpson has failed to 

 discover it during a search he has kindly undertaken in response 

 to my inquiries, and I am also indebted to Professor Blake for a 

 reference to his note-books, which likewise afford no definite par- 

 ticulars. 



The Oxfordian N. contrarius and N. Miinster i are thus the earliest 

 species of the genus at present described, and with these we com- 

 mence an enumeration of the different specific types that appear to 

 be distinguishable upon the evidence of detached teeth. 



1. N. contrabxus, Miinster. 



1843. N. contrarius, Graf von Miinster, "Beitr. zur Petrefaktenkunde," pt. vi. 

 p. 54, pi. ii. fig. 3. 



Founded upon a broken tooth from the Lower Oxfordian i of 

 Babenstein, Bavaria. The fossil exhibits two small diverging cones, 

 with a denticle behind, but is much too fragmentary for specific 

 determination, and does not appear to have been recorded since 

 Miinster's original description. 



2. N. Munsteri, Agassiz. 



1843. iV. Munsteri, L. Agassiz, " R.ech. Poiss. Foss." vol. iii. p. 222, pi. 27, 

 figs. 2, 3. 



A species founded by Agassiz upon some detached teeth from the 

 Oxfordian (Weiss Jura 7, Quenstedt) of Streitberg, Franconia, and 

 of Banden, Schaffhausen, Switzerland. The type specimen figured 

 exhibits a principal cone destitute of anterior serrations and relatively 

 large both in breadth and height ; this is followed by three well- 

 marked secondary cones, closely approximated, and rapidly decreasing 

 in size, and the crown terminates in a small denticulation. 



1 Miinster, " Biitrage zur Petrefaktenkunde," pt. vi. (1843), p. 55. 



2 A. Oppel, "Der mittlere Lias Schwabens," Wiirttb. Jahresh. vol. x. (1854), 

 p. 62, pi. i. fig. 1. 



3 Tate and Blake, " The Yorkshire Lias" (1876), p. 256. 



4 This and the other Jurassic horizons have been kindly supplied by Mr. Etheridge. 



