AMTOPSIS. 



91 



1. Amiopsis damoni (Egerton). Plate XIX, figs. 5, 6. 



1858. Megalurus damoni, P. M. G. Egerton, Figs, and Descript. Brit. Organic Remains (Mem. Geol. 



Surv.), cU'C ix, no. 8, pi. viii. 

 (?) 1873. Megalurus damoni, V. Thiolliere, Poiss. Foss. Bugey, pt. ii, p. 22, pi. ix. 

 1895. Megalurus damoni, A. S. Woodward, Catal. Foss. Fishes, B. M., pt. iii, p. 366. 



Type Specimen. — Imperfect fish ; British Museum. 



Specific Characters. — Attaining a length of about 30 cm. but usually smaller. 

 Length of head with opercular apparatus exceeding maximum depth of trunk and 

 contained about five times in total length of fish ; depth of caudal pedicle contained 

 scarcely five times in length from operculum to base of middle caudal fin-rays. 

 External bones slightly rugose, otherwise not ornamented. About 55 vertebra", 



Fig. 30.— Amiopsis dolloi, Traquair ; restoration, scales omitted, much reduced in size.— Wealden ; Bernissart, 



Belgium. After R. H. Traquair. 



half being abdominal. Dorsal fin with about 1 7 supports, occupying the middle 

 of the back ; anal fin with 8 supports, arising opposite the hinder end of the 

 dorsal ; pelvic fins inserted opposite the origin of the dorsal. Scales broader than 

 deep, their hinder border not thickened. 



Description of Specimens.— The type specimen exhibits most of the generic and 

 specific characters of the fish, and another specimen, even better preserved, is 

 shown of the natural size in PI. XIX, fig. 5. The bones of the head, though stout, 

 are always much crushed and broken in the fossils. The parietal, squamosal, and 

 frontal bones are as in Anna, forming a cranial shield only gently arched from side 

 to side and ornamented with a feeble coarse rugosity. A single pair of supra- 

 temporal plates overlaps the occipital border. The outer margin of each frontal is 

 slightly excavated above the orbit; and in one specimen (B. M. no. 41171) this 

 excavation is occupied by four nearly smooth plates of a narrow circumorbital 

 ring. Traces of similar plates are also seen in the type specimen. The mandibular 

 suspensorium is gently arched forwards so that the quadrate articulation is beneath 



