REPORT ON FOSSIL FISHES. 61 
Remarks.—This large and beautiful Platysomus, to which I have applied the 
specific name swperbus, cannot possibly be confounded with any species pre- 
viously described. Its salient features are—the great gibbosity of the back, 
the great depth of the dorsal fin, whose base is equal to twice the length of 
that of the anal. The scales have a delicate striation, somewhat similar to that 
of the Permian Platysomus striatus, but their exposed areze are much more 
acutely rhomboidal, and the two species are furthermore widely separated by 
the form of the body and of the dorsal and anal fins. 
It is interesting to find in a specimen, which in all respects is an undoubted 
Platysomus, so clear a demonstration of a large and well-developed ventral fin, 
as well as of slender styliform teeth in the jaw. 
Platysomus has not hitherto been found in so low a horizon of the Carboni- 
ferous system. 
Geological Position and Locality—Near Glencartholm, Eskdale, in the 
Cement-stone group of the Calciferous Sandstone series. 
Or UNCERTAIN SUBORDINAL POSITION. 
Family TARRASUD. 
Scales rhombic, minute, shagreen-like. Notochord persistent. Neural and 
hemal arches and spines well ossified ; slender interspinous bones penetrate 
between the extremities of the vertebral spines as in teleostean fishes. A long 
dorsal fin composed of closely set jointed rays. 
Tarrasius, gen. nov. Traquair. 
Characters of the Family— A fragment of a small fish, found by Mr 
Macconocuiz at Tarras Foot, Eskdale, displays, in spite of its imperfect con- 
dition, characters so startlingly novel, and so completely at variance with 
anything hitherto observed in the domain of paleozoic ichthyology, that I 
feel compelled to institute for its reception not merely a new genus, but 
likewise a new family. With this I associate a specimen from Glencartholm, 
which displays some of the same characters, and which, so far as evidence goes, 
seems also to belong to the same species. The family and generic names are 
taken from the first locality. 
