G. J. HINDE ON CAMBRO-SILURIAN AND DEVONIAN ConoponTs. 351 
29. On Conovonts from the Cuazy and Cincinnati Group of the 
CampBro-Siiurian, and from the Hamitron and GunesEE-SHALE 
Divisions of the Duvontan, in Canana and the Unirep Sratus. 
By Gores Jenyines Hinpe, Esq., F.G.S. (Read March 12, 
1879.) 
{Pirates XV.-XVII.] 
Soon after the publication by Dr. Pander, in 1856, of his well- 
known monograph, in which he announced the discovery, in the 
lowest fossiliferous rocks of Russia, of small “teeth” named Cono- 
donts, and referred by him to fishes, several discussions arose as to 
the character of these minute bodies, and various opinions were 
expressed as to their near relations, without, however, any satis- 
factory conclusion being arrived at. Since that date Conodonts 
have been found in several other places ; and in this communication 
I propose to describe a great variety of forms which I have collected 
within the last two years from several different formations in North 
America. Though my specimens may not suffice to determine the 
true position of the organisms to which they were attached, they 
will at least add something to our previous knowledge, and thus 
assist in reaching a decision on the subject. 
The next account, after Dr. Pander’s, of the discovery of Conodonts 
is by Dr. J. Harley, in an article on the Ludlow bone-bed and its 
crustacean remains*. Only two of the specimens described by this 
gentleman have any resemblance to the Conodonts of Pander; but a 
comparison of these with other very differently formed bodies in 
the same beds led him to express the opinion that all the forms 
were of crustacean origin, and that Conodonts were probably only 
Spines similar to those attached to the margins of the carapace 
of Limulus and the caudal segment of Squilla. He therefore included 
all together under the provisional genus Astacoderma. 
In 1869 Mr. Charles Moore, F.G.S., discovered undoubted Cono- 
donts in the Carboniferous Limestone of this country+; and in a 
late communication from that gentleman he informs me that he 
has them from the Silurian probably up to the Permian. 
Within this last year these small bodies have been found in great 
variety and most beautiful preservation in Lower Carboniferous 
strata in Scotland by Mr. C. J. Smith, of the Eglinton Iron-works, 
Kilwinning, and some notes on them have been laid before the 
Natural-History Society of Glasgow by Mr. John Young, F.G.S._ I 
am indebted to Mr. Young for the opportunity of looking over his 
specimens, and at once recognized that many of them were identical 
with those from the Devonian and Carboniferous formations of 
North America, as also with those from the same formations in 
Russia, figured by Pander. 
* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soe. vol. xvii. p. 542 (1861). 
+ Report of British Association, 1869, p. 375. 
Grea. s. No, 139. 2¢ 
