134 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



III Notes on the anatomy of Scaumenacia curta 



The New York State Musiiem possesses a series of fourteen speci- 

 mens of S c a u m e n c i a curta ( Whiteaves) , one of them more 

 perfect than any other yet found, and the rest with one or another 

 feature well preserved. Through the kindness of the Director 

 of the Museum, this collection was recently placed in my hands for 

 study. I have taken this ocasion also to go over the excellent 

 materials, comprising some fifteen specimens, in the American 

 Museum collection, and have also examined one fine, large speci- 

 men belonging to the Yale Museum.^ These thirty odd specimens 

 make up the largest assemblage of Scaumenacia ever brought 

 together at one time, and afford excellent data for a reconstruction 

 of the fish and for elucidating a number of anatomical details still 

 imperfectly known. The specimens are all from the type locality — 

 the Upper Devonic shales on Scaumenac bay, Quebec. A few are 

 from the massive fine-grained sandstone in which the soft structures 

 of Bothriolepis occur ; the rest are from thin-bedded shales at a level 

 considerably below this horizon. 



Scaumenacia was first described by Whiteaves in 1881 [8]. He 

 regarded it as belonging to the genus Phaneropleuron, and named it 

 P. curtum. In 1887 [9] he discussed the anatomy of this fish 

 and figured one of the types and several anatomical details — cranial 

 plates, dentition and scales. These confirmed him in his original 

 opinion that the fish was a dipnoan. In 1889 [10] he published a 

 "' slightly restored " figure of the fish. 



In 1893 Traquair [7] pointed out that this fish differed from 

 Phaneropleuron in having two dorsals instead of one. He therefore 

 regarded it as a distinct genus for which he proposed the name 

 Scaumenacia. 



Two restorations of Scaumenacia have been published, one by 

 Whiteaves (mentioned above), the other by Traquair, in Dollo's 

 paper " Sur la Phylogenie des Dipneustes " [i]. Several anatomical 

 features, in addition to those by Whiteaves mentioned above, have 

 also been figured: a dental plate (Jaekel [4]) ; the head (Eastman 

 [2]) ; and the anal fin (Woodward [n]). 



Sise. Most of the specimens of Scaumenacia are small, under 

 10 inches in length, giving the impression of a rather small fish. 



1 This specimen was kindly lent me for study by Professor R. S. Lull. 



