506 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [June 8, 
3. Ona new LAByRintHopontT AMPHIBIAN from the Maenestan Live- 
stone of Mipprriper, Durnam. By Aupany Hancock, Esq., 
F.L.S., and Ricuarp Hows, Esq. 
Communicated by Prof. Huxley, F.R.S., F.G.S. 
y y 
[Puare XXXVIII.] 
Awmone the important additions to the fauna of the Permian rocks 
of Durham made by Joseph Duff, Esq., last autumn, not the least 
interesting, perhaps, may be reckoned the remains of a Labyrin- 
thodont having numerous finely striated, rhombiform scutes or 
scales, resembling in shape those of some Ganoid fishes, though very 
superior in size. ‘These remains were found at the Midderidge 
quarry (a portion of which has recently been removed for the purpose 
of widening the Darlington and Wear-valley Railway), in a bed of 
yellow marly limestone 7 or 8 feet above the marl-slate properly so 
called. The section at this quarry is thus described by Prof. Sedg- 
wick, Geol. Trans. ser. ii. vol. iii, p. 76 :— 
“1. Bed of light-coloured siliceous sandstone, worked as a coarse 
flagstone and also as a building-stone. The upper beds alternate with 
blue-coloured calcareous shale. At East Thickley they are about 
30 feet thick. 
«© 2. Yellow-coloured calcareous shale and shale-slate,in thick- 
ness about 9 feet. Some of these beds are incoherent and sandy ; 
the marl-slate forms a series of indurated bands, which divide the 
more incoherent shale. 
«3, A series of thin beds with marly partings ; the whole about 
20 feet thick. The average thickness of the several beds is not more 
than a few inches; their surfaces are often covered with yellow 
marl; at their natural partings they are generally covered with den- 
dritical impressions,”’ etc. 
In the above section, No. 1 represents the uppermost member of 
the Coal-measures, which in this part of Durham have been much 
disturbed and denuded prior to the deposition of the Marl-slate. It 
must be mentioned that in this quarry and in the south of Durham 
there is no bed of “ yellow incoherent sand,” a bed which forms an 
important item in the section a few miles further north and in the 
north of Durham generally. 
The Marl-slate proper equals the lower portion of No. 2 of Prof. 
Sedgwick’s section. When closely examined, it can be distinctly 
separated from the marly limestone, into which it gradually passes 
upwards. And it is more emphatically distinguished by the fossils it 
contains ; for, though a few stray fishes are now and then found in 
the calcareous beds above, yet this lowest part is the depository for 
the numerous fish- and plant-remains which characterize the Permian 
rocks. Itis, then, in the middle, or nearly so, of this yard of Marl- 
slate that Mr. Duff has found the remains of the Dorypterus Hoff- 
manni, Germar, and also the remains of two species of reptiles, viz. 
Proterosaurus Spenert, H. v. Meyer, and Proterosaurus Hualeyi, 
nov. spec., descriptions of which haye been communicated to the 
Geological Society. Associated with these occurred numerous re- 
