17 
median peg-and-socket articulation ; but the usual thick vertical ridge on 
their inner face is not very conspicuous. Towards the dorsal and ventral 
borders and on the caudal region the scales are nearly equilateral, and the 
main direction of the ornamental ridges is parallel with the diagonal. No 
ridge-scales are preserved. 
Affinities . — This is the largest known species, and is evidently closely 
related to the typical Myriolepis Clarkei. It differs from the latter and the 
two other known species by the slightly more remote position of its dorsal 
fin ; and it is also distinguished from M. hibernica by its coarser scale- 
ornament. 
Genus — ELPISOPIIOLIS, novum. 
Gen. Char. — Trunk fusiform, elongated. Ilead-boncs thin ; mandi- 
bular suspensorium very oblique ; dentition powerful. Pin-rays stout, with 
few distant articulations, and finely divided distallv ; fulcra absent. Pelvic 
fins with much extended base-line ; dorsal and anal fins also considerably 
extended, the former arising somewhat in advance of the latter ; caudal fin 
scarcely if at all forked. Greater part of the trunk naked, but the lower 
part of the abdominal region covered with thin rhombic scales, which exhibit 
concentric lines of growth ; a row of overlapping <- shaped scutes along the 
course of the lateral line ; small diamond-shaped scales on the slender upper 
caudal lobe. 
Obs. — Among known genera, Elpisopholis appears to be most nearly 
related to Phanerosteon, 1 from the Lower Carboniferous of Scotland, and to 
Scelelophorus , 2 from the Lower Permian of Bohemia. It differs from all 
Palaeoniscidae hitherto discovered in the presence of the thickened scutes 
along the course of the lateral line. 
1 R. H. Traquair, Trans. Roy. Soc. Edinb., xxx (1881), pp. 39-43, PI. Ill, Figs. 6-8. 
2 A. Fritsch, “ Fauna der Gaskohle Permform. Bdhmen,” iii ( 1 895), p. 88. 
§ 8125 E 
