54 



BRITISH FOSSILS. 



resemble those of Dipterus than any other, but the surface orna- 

 ment is differently arranged. The enlarged representations of two 

 scales, one from the flank, the other from the lateral line, most 

 carefully drawn by the skilful pencil of Mr. Dinkel, show the 

 characters more clearly than any description can do. The posterior 

 margins of the scales are all curvilinear, differing in this respect 

 from Gyroptychius.^ 



Affinities. — In assigning this new form to the Coelacanthoid 

 family, I have bepn mainly influenced by its resemblance in many 

 respects to Dipterus. The latter genus was arranged by Professor 

 Agassiz with the Sauroidei-dipterini, but I have long ago seen 

 sufficient reasons for considering it a Coelacanth, approximating 

 more nearly to Qlyptolepis and Holoptychius than to any other 

 genera. Professor Pander, however, in his work on Fossil Ichthy- 

 ology, a publication remarkable alike for the labour it evinces and 

 the extraordinary beauty of the illustrations, has issued a monograph 

 on the genus Dipterus, in which he disagrees with this arrange- 

 ment (first published by Professor M'Coy), and seeks to establish 

 a new family for its reception, which he designates " Ctenodipterini:' 

 Hugh Miller, so long ago as the year 1848,f made known the 

 curious discovery that the fossil crania named by Professor Agassiz 

 " Polyphractus/' belonged to the genus Dipterus, and furthermore, 

 that the palatal teeth called Ctenodus" by the same author, con- 

 stituted the dental apparatus of the same genus. Professor Pander 

 seems to have arrived at the same conclusion in 1858, not being 

 aware of the previous discoveries of Hugh Miller, whose claim 

 to priority, however, he acknowledges in a postcript. At the 

 same time, Hugh Miller exposed the fallacy of assigning two anal 

 fins to Dipterus, proving the so-called anterior anal fin to be one 

 of a pair of ventrals. Professor Pander entertains the same opinion, 

 but does not allude to Hugh Miller's correction, nor does Professor 

 M'Coy seem to have been aware of it, as he describes the genus as 

 having two anals. The genera Osteolepis, Diplopterus, and Qlypto- 

 lepis are also rightly deprived of the anterior anal fin in Professor 

 .Pander's publication. The term Ctenodipterini is intended to 

 express the association of the dental apparatus called Ctenodus with 

 the genus Dipterus ^ but it is an objectionable term, inasmuch as it 



* Professor M'Coy figures a scale (Plate 2 c. Fig. 2 a. British Palaeozoic Fossils), 

 which he describes as a scale from the back of Gyroptychius angustus. It very much 

 resembles a scale of Tristichopterus, 



t Witness Newspaper, December 23, 1848. 



