224 PERMIAN FOSSILS. 



PAL.EONISCUS ELEGANS, Sedgwick. Tennant, Strat. List, p. 89, 1847. 



— — „ King, Catalogue, p. 14, 1848. 



— — „ Howse, Trans. T. N. F. C, vol. i, p. 232, 1848. 



— — „ Geinitz, Versteinerungen, p. 5, 1848. 



Palaoniscus elegans is one of the rarest fishes of the Permian System. It differs 

 from the other species of this genus in its more elegant form and well-propor- 

 tioned dimensions, which fully entitle it to the specific name it has received. The 

 head bears the proportion of one fifth of the entire length ; all its component bones are 

 ornamented with diverging furrows. The body is an elongated oval. All the fins are 

 proportionally small : the transverse articulations of the dorsal and anal are far apart ; 

 and the rays are bifurcated for half their length. The anterior borders of these fins 

 are furnished with a fringe of very small rays attached to the larger ones. The rays 

 of the caudal fin are very slender, and dichotomize frequently. The transverse articu- 

 lations of the upper lobe are very close together : in the lower lobe they are more 

 distant.^— P. G. E. 



Palaoniscus elegans occurs in Marl-slate at Midderidge, East Thickley, Whitley, 

 Cullercoats, and Ferry Hill. The beautiful specimen figured, and now in the New- 

 castle Museum, was collected by myself at Aycliff in the same bed. 



PALiEONiscus GLAPHYRUs, Agussiz. Plate XXII, figs. 3, (?) 4 h. 



Pal^oniscus GLAPHYRUS, Agassiz. Poiss. Foss., vol. ii, p. 98, pi. x c, figs. 1, 2. 



— — „ Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. vii, p. 495, 1841. 



— — „ Morris, Catalogue, p. 201, 1843. 



— — „ Rep. of 13th Meet. Brit. Assoc, p. 196, 1844. 



— _ ,, De Verneuil, Bull. Soc. G6ol. de France, 2°" serie, 



vol. i, p. 38, 1844. 



— — „ Geol. Russ., vol. i, p. 227, 1845. 



— — „ Tennant, Strat. List, p. 89, 1847. 



— — ,, King, Catalogue, p. 14, 1848. 



— — „ Howse, Trans. T. N. F. C, vol. i, p. 233, 1848. 



— — „ Geinitz, Versteinerungen, p. 5, 1848. 



In my ' Catalogue,' p. 14, it is stated that the Newcastle Museum possesses a 

 specimen from the Marl-slate, Whitley (vide PI. XXII, fig. 4), resembling the 

 Palaoniscus angustus of Agassiz, but with this difference, that it has both lobe& of the 

 tail of the same length : in other respects, as the relative position of the fins, and the 

 arrangement of the scales, it agrees with the latter. From the following observa- 

 tions, however, communicated to me by Sir Philip Egerton, it would appear that the 

 specimen belongs to the present species. 



" The most important features in the Whitley specimen are the position of the 

 dorsal fin, which is placed farther back than in the other Permian species, — the 



^ This description is abridged from the more copious article in the ' Poissons Fossiles.' 



