80 WEALDEN AND PURBECK FOSSIL FISHES. 



Genus ENCHELYOLEPIS, novum. 



Generic Characters. — Head large, snout acute; trunk gradually tapering front 

 the occiput backwards. Marginal teeth much elongated, closely arranged. 

 Notochord invested with delicate ring-vertebras ; neural and haemal arches 

 especially short and stout. Fins consisting of robust, bifurcating rays, without 

 fulcra except in the caudal; pectoral fins larger than the pelvic pair; dorsal fin 

 with very stout supports, arising immediately behind the occiput and extending 

 continuously to the caudal pedicle; anal fin small; caudal fin not forked. Scales 

 very thin and deeply overlapping, the exposed portion rounded and exhibiting a 

 regularly reticulated structure ; no enlarged ridge-scales on caudal pedicle. 



Type Species.- — Enchelyolepis andrewsi, from the English Purbeck Beds. 



Remarks. — This genus is known only by two small specimens representing two 

 species, the one from the Purbeck Beds described below, the second from the 

 Upper Portlandian of Savonnieres-en-Perthois, Meuse, France. The latter was 

 described under the name of Macrosemius pedum I i* by H. E. Sauvage (Bull. Soc. 

 G-eol. France [3] vol. xi, 1883, p. 477, pi. xii, fig. 17), and is re-figured for 

 comparison with the Purbeckian species in PI. XVII, fig. 7. The genus is 

 distinguished from Macrosemius and all other Macrosemiidas by its peculiar thin 

 squamation ; it also differs from all genera of this family, except Petaloptery,v, in 

 the stoutness of its neural and haemal arches and of the dorsal and anal fin- 

 supports. 



The scales of Enchelyolepis are perhaps most closely similar to those of Amia, 

 but the reticulate structure of their exposed portion is rather suggestive of that 

 of the scales of eels. 



1. Enchelyolepis andrewsi, A. S. Woodward. Plate XVII, fig. 6. 



1895. Macrosemius andrewsi, A. S. Woodward, G-eol. Mag. [4] vol. ii, p. 148, pi. vii, fig. 3 ; and 

 Catal. Foss. Fishes B. M., pt. iii, p. 180. 



Type. — Nearly complete fish ; British Museum. 



Specific Characters.— A. very small species about 35 mm. in length. Length of 

 head with opercular apparatus considerably exceeding its maximum depth, and 

 contained about three and a half times in the total length to the base of the caudal 

 fin ; maximum depth of trunk twice that of caudal pedicle. Pelvic fins inserted 

 about midway between the pectoral and caudal fins ; dorsal fin much less deep 

 than the trunk, with about 25 slender rays ; anal fin with 7 or 8 rays. All scales 

 apparently broader than deep. 



