W. J. Barkas — List of Palceozic Fishes. 543 



are discovered, most of which are allowed to lie undescribed in. 

 private collections, and those that are named and recorded are 

 frequently similar to others (but named differently) in the cabinets 

 of persons in other localities in widely different parts of the 

 world. 



It has occurred to me that a list of all the Palaeozoic fishes that 

 have been described up to this period would be of great utility to 

 palaeontologists, and would enable any future discoverer to learn at 

 a glance what species had already been found belonging to the genus 

 of his supposed new fish, and before he gave it a specific name it 

 would be tlesirable that he should carefully compare it with all the 

 other species of that genus. Another advantage accruing from 

 such a list is that one would be enabled to see immediately what 

 fishes are considered Palseozoic at the present stage of palseonto- 

 logical research. If similar lists of Mesozoic and Cainozoic fishes 

 were published in the Geological Magazine, the benefit would be 

 still greater, for they would show what genera of fishes passed from 

 one period to another. These are one or two of the reasons for 

 my compiling this list ; but the chief object is that I desire to study 

 the teeth of all Palasozoic fishes that are known to have teeth, and it 

 is necessary beforehand to ascertain what genera and species have 

 been discovered. Of course it is impossible to obtain the teeth of all 

 the fishes named below, for many are known to be edentate, others 

 are founded upon spines alone, some on scales, shagreen, or other 

 parts of a fish, the teeth of which have not been discovered, or if dis- 

 covered, have not been correlated with the parts enumerated. 



It is not improbable that the list I now give is imperfect, for I may 

 have overlooked some species or even genera contained in works that 

 are to me inaccessible, and there can be no doubt that in some cases 

 the same fish figures under two or more names. I have been as 

 careful as possible not to fall into this error ; but the literature of 

 fossil fishes is so exceedingly scattered and scanty, that it is almost 

 impossible to learn from that source what are their cliaracters. As a 

 further precaution, Mr. William Davies, of the Geological Department 

 of the. British Museum, has kindly corrected and revised the list, 

 thus rendering it of far greater value to the scientific student 

 of fossil Ichthyology. In this state it is placed before the 

 readers of the Geological Magazine, and there can be no doubt, 

 after the careful revision it has received at the hands of Mr. Davies, 

 that it is the most complete list of Palceozoic fossils that has as yet 

 been published ; and I trust that it will not be long before similar 

 complete lists are issued of the fishes of the more recent eras. When, 

 in examining the various works for the purposes of this list, I have 

 found two names, one of which was considered to be a synonym 

 of the other, I have struck one of them out of its supj)osed genus and 

 placed it as a synonym of the other. For exam];)le, Cochliodus striatus 

 is a synonym of Xystrodus striatus. C. striatus was first named by 

 Agassiz, but a subsequent investigation appears to have led him to 

 consider that it was not a good species ; he, therefore, divided it 

 into two species having the generic name Xystrodus. Should any 



