318 MR. H. J. CARTER 0^" SOME VERTEBRATE REMAINS IX THE 



25. On some Yeriebeate Eemaixs in the Teiassic Strata of the 

 SorTH Coast of Detoxshire hetween Btjdleigh Saitertox and 

 SiDMOTJTH. By H. J. Carter, Esq., P.E.S. (Eead Pebruary 29, 

 1888.) 



(Communicated by A. T. Metcalfe, Esq., F.Gr.S.*) 

 [Abridged.] 



In August last my attention was particularly called by tbe late 

 Dr. Jobn llillar, F.G.S., to the microscopic structure of the remains 

 noticed by Mr. Metcalfe under No. 11 in his paper " On further dis- 

 coveries of Vertebrate Eemains in the Triassic Strata of the South 

 Coast of Devonshii'e" t. These are small pellet-like amorphous bodies, 

 averagino; from \ to | inch in diameter, composed of white calcareous 

 matter, traversed in all directions by semitransparent crystalhne 

 plates showing bone-structure. These pellets occur plentifully in 

 the fallen blocks of Triassic rock on the beach, which contain the 

 remains of Labyrinthodonts &c. Dr. Millar remarked that they 

 very much resembled coprolites and were identical in appearance 

 with some in his possession from the Lias, which he would send me 

 for comparison. 



I had previously observed that the contained plates, when examined 

 in water under the microscope, presented the same bone-structure as 

 the scales of the Bony Pike of l^orth America (Lepidosteus osseiis), 

 as shown by Prof. Quekett in his 'Lectures on Histology ' J ; and on 

 grinding down a fossilized Lepidostean scale from Hordwell, Hants, 

 I found its structure to be exactly like that of the recent species. 

 On breaking up some of the pellets (which are formed of concentric 

 layers), I found a fragment representing the angular part of a scale, 

 on which the same agatoid lines of growth were visible as on the 

 ganoid scales from HordweU. 



The slides of Ichthyosaurian coprolites sent to me by Dr. Millar 

 showed sections of the same kind of plates with the same character- 

 istic bone-structure, so that it became evident that the Ichthyosau- 

 rians of the Lias and the Amphibians of the Triassic age fed upon 

 the same kind of Ganoid fish, whose scales, being too hard for 

 digestion, have remained in the coprolites. 



The plates of the Sturgeon present the same kind of bone-struc- 

 ture, viz. large lacunce, which, when compared with those of Eeptiles, 

 Amphibia, &c., are seen to be provided with longer and less numerous 

 canaliculi, elegantly waved and dendritically branched. 



As regards the bone-structure of the so-called "Spine," ^o. 1 

 {he. cit. p. 260, fig. 2), and that of the middle part of the jaw-bone 



* This paper is supplementary to one on the same subject read by Mr. A. T. 

 Metcalfe before the Society on January 9, 1884, and published in the Quarterly 

 Journal of the Society, vol. xl. p. 257. 



t Loc. rif. p. 281. ' ; Tol. i. p. 174, fig. 136. 



