424 FOSSIL FISH. 



This ichthyolite, which is not perfect, represents an extremely 

 singular fish, having somewhat of the form of B. ocellaris, as 

 to the thickness of the head, but in other respects there is 

 hardly any approximation : in fact, the body is much shorter, 

 and altogether cuneiform ; the head is much more thick ; the 

 first dorsal fin, too, is infinitely higher, and commences sooner. 

 There appears but little doubt that this is a new species, whose 

 analogue is yet unknown. 



Ammodytes. a. tobianus, Icht. Ver. This fossil, very 

 much defaced, indicates an elongated fish, but one infinitely 

 less so than the Ammodytes tobianus, 



Ophidium. Ophidium barbatum, Volta. An anguilliform 

 fish, with the head very small ; the back is furnished, in its 

 entire extent from the nape, with a fin with very numerous 

 rays, augmenting from front to rear ; the anal is of the same 

 form, commencing towards one half of the animal, and uniting 

 at the extremity of the body to the dorsal, and there assuming 

 a rounded form, which is quite different from what takes place 

 in O. barbatum. The whole body is spotted with brown. 



MuR^NA. MurcBna conger, Volt. This fossil very probably 

 represents a species of this genus, but it is utterly impossible to 

 determine what that species may be. 



MuR.ENOPHis and Synbranchus. Three ichthjolites repre- 

 sented under the names MurcBuophis, Murcena ccpca, and Syn- 

 branchus immaculatus, appear to belong to one and the same 

 species of anguilliform fish, very much elongated, and without 

 any trace of fin ; but this is nearly all that can be said about it. 



It is easy to see, after this brief view of the ichthyolites of 

 Vestena Nuova, which we have given from M. de Blainville, 

 that the majority of the analogues admitted by Volta are more 

 than doubtful, and that the number of species is much less 

 considerable than what he has calculated them to be. He has 

 reckoned a hundred and five, whereas, at most, there are not 

 above ninety-four : seven he attributes to the fresh-water, while. 



