78 MESSES. HANCOCK AND ATTHEY ON 



to the head and tubercle of the rib. The upper portion, how- 

 ever, is thicker than the lower. 



The measurements of the larger vertebra are as follows : — 



Height of the body of the vertebra 1 



Transverse diameter 1 



Length 



Height of neiu-al arch 



Heiglit of spinous process 1 



Length of ditto 1 



Thickness of ditto 



Width of transverse process 



Thickness of ditto 



Inches. 

 9 



Several other well ossified vertebral centra have occurred at 

 Newsham; they have all, however, lost the neural arch and most 

 of the processes. Some, having a minute notochord, probably 

 belong to Pteroplax : and two in particular, one of which is 1^ 

 inches high, and about the same wide, agree perfectly well in 

 form with the two above described. These have on the upper 

 surface two peculiar, wide, arched, transverse, sessile processes 

 or lobes, with the anterior faces a little hollowed. There can be 

 no doubt that these belong to this Labyrinthodont, and are pro- 

 bably caudal vertebra. 



There are three or four other vertebrae, quite as large as the 

 above, with a notochord nearly half-an-inch wide, and the re- 

 mains of lateral processes. These may probably belong to fishes, 

 but we know of no fish in our coal shales to which they can be 

 assigned. 



The four or five ribs that have turned up at Newsham are not 

 well preserved. Two are lying in contact with one of the cra- 

 nial shields, one above, the other below it ; but in both instances 

 the extremities are either lost or much injured. The largest is 

 5^ inches from end to end, and |-ths of an inch broad ; it is well 

 and regularly arched, and appears to be a little flattened ; a wide 

 groove extends along the surface ; and one of the extremities, 

 which is crushed flat, exhibits distinct traces of a tuberculum 

 and capitulum, the latter projecting quite fths of an inch be- 

 yond the former, and continues the concavity of the inner 



