XAXAV 
DESCRIPTION OF ANTHRACOSAURUS RUSSELLI, A 
NEW LABYRINTHODONT FROM THE LANARK- 
SHIRE COAL-FIELD. 
Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. xix., 1863, 
pp. 56-68. (Read December 3rd, 1862.) 
IN September last, Mr. James Russell, Mineral Surveyor, of 
Chapelhall, near Airdrie, called at the Museum of Practical Geology 
to make some inquiries respecting the probable nature of a fossil (sup- 
posed to be a fish) lately brought to light by the workmen engaged 
upon the Monkland Iron and Steel Company’s estate, about a mile 
from Airdrie and twelve miles east of Glasgow, and found in what 
is known as the Airdrie or Mushet’s black-band Ironstone.t I was 
at that time absent from London; but Mr. Etheridge, to whom Mr. 
Russell described the fossil, strongly advised that a careful drawing 
should be made and sent up to London, for my examination. This 
was eventually done, and the sketch, faithfully executed in its 
general characters, which reached me on the 6th of November, ap- 
peared so conclusively to indicate the Labyrinthodont nature of the 
fossil, that I at once requested Mr. Russell to permit me to have it 
sent up to the Museum for closer examination. Mr. Russell very 
1 The President has kindly furnished me with the following note respecting the 
stratigraphical position of the Airdrie black-band Ironstone :— 
“The fossils described in this memoir were found in, or else close to the ‘ Airdrie or 
Mushet’s black-band’ Ironstone, which at this point changes into Coal. According to Mr. 
Ralph Moore’s published section, this stratum lies about 564 feet below the topmost Coal- 
measures, and about 666 feet above the ‘ Moorstone rock,’ which I believe to be the 
general equivalent of the English Millstone grit. The bones were therefore found in the 
true Coal-measures, far above the Gilmerton Limestone series (the equivalent of part of the 
English Carboniferous limestone, in which Zoxomma was discovered), and probably 2000 feet 
or more above the horizon of the Burdie House limestone.” 
