A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



comb-like structure of the palatal teeth. The first species, C. murchisoni, is 

 common to the upper Coal Measures of Shropshire and Lancashire and to the 

 middle Coal xMeasures of Staffordshire ; while the second, C. cristatus, is widely 

 distributed. Sagenodus inaqualis, which has an equally wide range, appears 

 in Mr. Bolton's list, where the fish known as Hybodopsis wardi is likewise 

 recorded as a Lancashire species. 



The great group of fringe-finned enamel-scaled fishes, of which the 

 African bichirs and reed-fish are the sole survivors, are represented in the county 

 by an undetermined species of Rhizodopsis recorded by Mr. Wellburn from the 

 Littleborough district, and also by scales from Pendleton and the Victoria 

 pit which have been identified with R. sauroides. The large and well-known 

 Megalichthys hibberti, of which the remains occur in all the British coal-fields, 

 is common to the Lancashire area, as are also the species known as M. inter- 

 medius and M. pygmceus, which appear in Mr. Bolton's list. Teeth and scales 

 of this genus are also recorded from St. Helens. Very widely spread is a 

 species, Ccelacanthus elegans, of another genus of the same group, which is 

 common to the Coal Measures of North America and Great Britain, and of 

 which remains have been recorded from Lancashire. Bones and teeth of a 

 second representative of the same genus from the St. Helens neighbourhood 

 are identified with C. lepturus. 



Of fish-spines or ' ichthyodorulites ' of uncertain systematic position from 

 the Coal Measures of the county, Mr. Bolton records the types respectively 

 known as Gyracanthus formosus, Oracanthus milleri, and Lepracanthus colei. In 

 the Geological Magazine for 1896 the same gentleman describes a fish-spine 

 from the county which, under the name of L. spinatus, he identifies with the 

 American generic type Listracanthus. 



Leaving the fringe-finned group for that section of the enamel-scaled 

 series in which the fins are of a more ordinary type of structure, we find the 

 great Palaeozoic family Palaoniscidae represented in the Coal Measures of the 

 county by three species of the genus Eloriichthys, namely E. aitkeni, E. semistria- 

 tus, and E. egertoni, all of which occur in the Littleborough district, while the 

 genus is also recorded in Mr. Morton's hst from the Victoria pit in the St. 

 Helens neighbourhood. The first named species is typically a Lancashire 

 fish. In addition to these we have from the Littleborough district another 

 member of the family in question, Rhadinichthys monensis, a species typically 

 from Anglesea belonging to a genus with numerous representatives. A scale 

 of Rhadinichthys is also recorded by Mr. Morton from the Victoria pit ; and 

 Mr. Bolton includes in his list the two species known as R. wardi and R. 

 planti, the latter being typically from the present county,^ while the former 

 was described on the evidence of Staffordshire specimens. 



Lastly, Acrolepis hopkinsi, which occurs at Littleborough, belongs to 

 a large genus, and is common to the Carboniferous of Derbyshire, Yorkshire, 

 Lanarkshire, and Belgium. 



The remaining fishes recorded from the Coal Measures of the county are 

 mostly referable to the family Platysomatidce, the members of which are readily 

 distinguishable from the Palctoniscida by the much deeper and more rhomboi- 

 dal form of the body. Among these Chirodus granulosus, which is not included 

 in the Littleborough list, is recorded elsewhere from Staffordshire and Lanark- 



1 Traquair, Geol. Mag. (3) v. 253 (1888). 

 34 



