72 Fossil Fish of the Lebanon. 



probably specimens of SipJionotreta micula which, occur in these grapto- 

 litic shales. His description and figures, as far as they go, cor- 

 respond with M 'Coy's fossil, which I have found at Garple and 

 elsewhere in Dumfriesshire. 



nsroTiOES oip zMUBUvnoiias. 



I. — The Fossil Fish of Mount Lebanon.' 



THE fossil fishes of Mount Lebanon appear to have been first 

 noticed in the time of the Crusaders, and subsequently by the 

 travellers Korte, Lebrun, Volney, and mentioned by Scheuchzer, in 

 1708. They were first scientifically described by Blainville, who 

 noticed two species, and afterwards by Agassiz, Sir Philip Egerton, 

 Heckel, and Pictet. New researches on these fishes by MM. 

 Humbert and Pictet have been published at Geneva, illustrated by 

 19 plates. By these authors the fishes are considered to belong to the 

 Cretaceous period, from the great number of Teleostean fish and the 

 absence of Ganoids, — from a certain number of genera or groups which 

 exclusively characterize the Cretaceous period — from the great number 

 of extinct genera which give a special physiognomy to these faunas, 

 such as at Hakel, the Pseudoheryx, Petalopteryx, Coccodus, Aspido- 

 pleuriis, and Cyclohatis, and at Sahel Alma, the Pycnosterinx, Cheiro- 

 ihrix, Bhinellus, and Spaniodon, and lastly, from the fact that the 

 genera which have living representatives are the most abundant at 

 Lebanon, such as the types of the Beryx, the Glupea, and CMro- 

 centrites, which are more or less eminently Cretaceous, or have their 

 commencement in that period. 



From a general comparison of the fish fauna of Hakel with that 

 of Comen in Istria, — of the fauna of Sahel Alma with that of the 

 Westphalian Chalk, and both of them with the Cretaceous fauna of 

 England, the authors consider that the fishes of Lebanon belong to 

 the Middle Cretaceous period. 



Li reviewiag this fauna palseontologically, or in relation to the 

 previous Jurassic and subsequent Tertiary periods, some interesting 

 facts appear. Taking the classification of fishes by J. MuUer, but 

 three of his sub-classes have fossil representatives, the Elasmo- 

 branchs, Ganoids, and Teleosteans. The latter being generally 

 considered to have first appeared in the Cretaceous period, but the 

 genera Tharsis, Leptolepis, etc., are now recognised as Teleosteans, 

 and related to the Halecoides, — fishes which possess in a high degree 

 the normal characters of the class, and of which they represent 

 somewhat the archetype. The Elasmobranchs are not abundant 

 at Lebanon, the principal forms belong to sharks and rays. The 

 Ganoids are not represented in this fauna, for the Hoplopleurides are 

 not true Ganoids. The third sub-class, the Teleosteans, are the most 

 important, and constitute nearly the whole of this fauna. Of this 

 sub-class, the Helecoides contain nineteen out of fifty-one species ; 



^ Nouvelles rechercbes sur les Poissons fossiles de Mont Liban, par MM. F. J. 

 Pictet et A. Humbert, Geneva, 1866. 



