i87 



FISH AND OTHER REMAINS FROM THE CHALK OF 

 LINCOLNSHIRE AND YORKSHIRE. 



j(PLATE XVI.). 



T. SHEPPARD. F.G.S., 

 Hull. 



Some discoveries have recently been made in the chalk 

 of North Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire, which it is advisable 

 to place on record. 



The well-known chalk quarries at Barton and South Ferriby 

 \i-ivQ yielded a number of interesting fish and other remains, 

 some of which have not previously been recorded for the chalk 

 of this district. The specimens include remains of Ganoid and 

 Teleostean fishes (enamelled-scaled fishes and bony fishes 

 respectively), as well as of Selachians (sharks). 



Perhaps one of the most interesting discoveries is the fin 

 spine of a Ganoid, probably referable to Le^idotus. The speci- 

 men (Plate XIX., fig. i) is three inches in length, and shows 

 the part of attachment to the remainder of the skeleton. It 

 was obtained by Mr. H. C. Drake, F.G.S., in the lower part 

 of the Middle Chalk (a few inches above the ' Black Band ' 

 or Belemnitella-plena zone), in the well-known chalk pit at 

 South Ferriby. Lepidotus is a well-known Jurassic type of fish, 

 which survived into Cretaceous times, and appears to have be- 

 come extinct in the Upper Cretaceous beds. The specimen 

 from South Ferriby, which is a new record for the Chalk of 

 the north of England, is from one of the highest horizons on 

 record, and is therefore quite possibly a relic of one of the 

 last individuals of its race that existed on this globe. 



Another interesting find in the same quarry was made on 

 a joint excursion of the Hull Scientific and Field Naturalists' 

 Club and the Hull Geological Society last year. The foreman 

 in the quarry had kindly put on one side a number of unusually 

 large vertebrae, and we were informed of the position in which 

 they had been obtained. 



This proved to be in the lower two or three inches of the B. 

 plena zone, opposite the entrance to the quarry, and at this point 

 the bed is eight or ten feet from the pit floor. The fossils were 

 practically resting upon the uppermost bed of the Lower Chalk. 



By carefully removing some of the marly material, we were 

 fortunate enough to secure other vertebrae, and were thus able 

 to definitely locate the exact horizon at which the remains were 

 found. Some of the bones were slightly crushed and in 



1908 May I. 



