250 D. 8. Jordan — New Species of Fossil Herring. 



caudal broken, only the base preserved, the lower half with about 

 twelve rays ; ventral fins lost ; no trace of scales and no indica- 

 tion as to whether ventral or dorsal outline is serrated. 



The type of this species, Catalogue number 401, Yale 

 University Museum, is a tiny fossil herring, with broken 

 fins, a little over an inch long, and about 1 1/3 inches to 

 tip of caudal, if complete. It was obtained by Mr. R. F. 

 Baker, from an oil well at a depth of 3,098 feet, at West 

 Columbia, Brazoria County, on the Gulf Coast of Texas. 

 It is in bluish clay shale, of the Lower Miocene, either the 

 Fleming or the DeWitt formation, and is part of a boring 

 of the Texas Company Hogg Well No. 63. The species is 

 named after Mr. R. F. Baker, geologist of the Texas Com- 

 pany. 



The specimen was sent to the writer for study by Pro- 

 fessor Charles Schuchert. With it is a smaller fragment, 

 the reverse of the best preserved side, showing the poste- 

 rior part of the head, a pectoral fin and the vertebral 

 column to about the middle of the anal fin. 



The obliteration of scales and scutes makes it impossi- 

 ble to locate the genus with accuracy. Among the small 

 herrings of the Miocene, it seems to come nearest to the 

 genus Quisque of the Southern California Miocene; the 

 large head, stout bones and large oblique mouth agreeing 

 with Quisque gilberti Jordan from El Modena, California, 

 the type of the genus. 



