74 
WELLBURN : OX SOME XEW SPECIES OF FOSSIL FISH. 
low and broad. Their ornamentation consists of well-marked 
ridges which run transversely across the scale from the anterior 
border, but below a point about the centre of this border they 
become more and more oblique, the lowermost ones running 
downwards for some little distance more or less parallel to the 
anterior border, then turning above the anterior inferior angle 
they run obliquely across the scale to the posterior border, 
whilst the lowermost ridges run parallel to the inferior border. 
The ridges frequently branch, and their number is often increased, 
in the posterior half of the scale, by intercalations. On some of 
the flank scales the sculpture is rendered more ornate by finer 
ridges, which run across the scale parallel to and between the 
coarser ridges. Further back on the bod}^ the sculpture 
assumes a more oblique direction, the ridge running more or less 
parallel to a line drawn from the anterior superior angle to the 
posterior inferior angle. On the lower ventral scales the sculp- 
ture is more regular in pattern, the ridges mostly running parallel 
to the superior and inferior borders ; there is also frec[uent 
intercalation of shorter ridges on the posterior half of the scale. 
The posterior margin of the principal flank scales are denticu- 
lated. The fins are only represented b}^ scattered rays which 
are somewhat distantly articulated, and have a well-marked 
longitudinal furrow. 
Remarks. — At a first glance this fish might be mistaken 
for E. Aitkeni Traquair, but on a closer examination it is seen 
to differ from that species in the more oblir^ue and elaborate 
nature of its scale sculpture, and also in the fact that the sculp- 
ture on the mandible differs from that of Dr. Traquair's species 
in the fact that in the latter fish " the ridges ran more or less 
parallel with the upper and lower margins of the bone," whereas 
in the present fish they ran upwards and forwards, cutting the 
dentary margin at an acute angle. 
I place the fish in the above genus on account of its great 
resemblance to E. Aitkeni Traquair, and because of the general 
characters of its scales, giving it the specific nomen "obliquus" 
on account of its scale sculpture. 
