318 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Mar. 18, 



Ammonites which Dr. Porter had not been able to determine. There 

 were also Cerithium Damonis, Serpula vertebralis, Belemnites gracilis, 

 Pecten, 2 sp., Nucida, Corbula, Avicula, abundant remains of Ichthyo- 

 saurus, Plesiosaurus, Pliosaurus, and Steneosaurus (?). The author had 

 also found a portion of a spine of Ptgchacanthus ornatissimus, and a 

 few palatal teeth of Strophodus siibreticulatus. What, however, he 

 particularly called attention to in this communication was the occur- 

 rence of large quantities of fossil wood, in pieces sometimes more 

 than a yard in length, highly bituminous, quite black, having a 

 fracture similar to jet, and capable of almost as high a degree of polish 

 as that mineral ; it is also exceedingly brittle, and, when exposed to 

 the air, cracks in all directions. Most of the specimens are flat, and 

 bear on their surface impressions of Ammonites and other shells. 



3. On a new Macrtjrotts Crustacean (Scapheus ancylochelis) from 

 the Lias of Lyme Regis. By Henry Woodward, Esq., E.Z.S. 



[Communicated by Professor Morris, F.G.S.] 



[Plate XI.] 



This beautiful and very perfect Crustacean (from the collection of 

 James Harrison, Esq., of Charmouth) was obtained from the zone of 

 Ammonites Bucklandi of the Lower Lias of Tape-ledge, near Lyme 

 Regis. 



A complete detached fore-limb of large size, from the collection 

 of E. C. H. Day, Esq., of Charmouth ; an imperfect fore-limb, 

 and perfect termination to a secondary limb, from the collection of 

 Capt. Hussey ; together with two fragmentary portions of limbs and 

 abdomen, from the collection of Mr. J. W. Harder, of Lyme Regis, 

 are all the remains of this new and very remarkable form hitherto 

 discovered. 



From the length of the fore-limbs, their monodactylous extre- 

 mities, and also the peculiar spatulate form of the penultimate joint 

 of the succeeding pairs of limbs, I am convinced of the propriety of 

 placing it near Bronn's genus Megacheirus*, many species of which 

 are described and figured in Miinster's ' Beitrage zur Petrefacten- 

 kunde,' Part II., from the Lithographic Limestone of Solenhofen. 



That genus has been obtained from the Oxford Clay of Wiltshire 

 and Normandy, and from the Inferior Oolite and Lower Lias of 

 Bavaria. 



There are, in the British Museum, several examples of the genus 

 Megacheirus from Solenhofen, and also from the Oxford Clay of Wilt- 

 shire ; but I have only been able to refer to the figures and descrip- 

 tions given by H. von Meyer and E. A. Quenstedt, of the species 



* The name Mecocheirus of Germar (1826) would have been entitled to priority 

 over Bronn's Megacheirus (1836), but Germar omitted to give a definite descrip- 

 tion of his fossil. Megacheirus should also properly include the genus Ptero* 

 cheirus of Bronn, all the Megacheiri being "wing-fingered," although the fringe 

 of hair upon the fore-arms is not always preserved. 



