MEMOIRS OF THE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM, Vol. X., Part II. 
A NEW CRETACEOUS FISH. 
By Heber a. Longman, F.L.S., C.M.Z.S., Director, Queensland Museum. 
{Plates X-XT, Text-figuros 1-3.) 
The remains of vertebrates as yet described from the Lower Cretaceous deposits 
■of Queensland are so few that considerable interest is attached to a large fossil fish 
presented to the Queensland Museum in August, 1931, by Mr. H. W. Dcnmead. 
This specimen was discovered one mile east of the townshij) of Richmond, on the 
Flinders River, North-western Queensland. It not only adds another genus and 
species to the few Cretaceous fishes recorded for Australia, but, although very 
incomplete, it appears to exhibit certain combinations of characters wliich may be 
■deemed significant to specialists in phylogenetic studies elucidating the classification 
of fishes. 
FLINDERSICHTHYS DENMEADI, genus and species new. 
Material . — The fossil consists of the head of a large teleost, with fourteen 
A^ertebrae, remains of the jjectoral girdle, and a fragment of a pectoral fin. (Reg. No. 
E. 2210.) The specimen is nineteen inches (483 mm.) in length, ten and a-haH inches 
.(266 mm.) in heiglxt, and was approximately five inches thick (126 mm.) when received. 
The left side, which is considerably abraded in places, was fairly clear of superficial 
matrix when received, but' the whole of the right side was heavily investecl with a 
buff-coloured, fine-grained calcareous mudstone. Although much of the matrix was 
fairly soft, the exposure of the roof of the skull and the deeper elements, especially 
the basioccipital region, necessitated many hours of work. Several fragments of the 
common Lower Cretaceous shell, Aiicellina gryphopoides (J. de C. Sow'.) were found 
in the matrix. 
Principal Characters . — Head large, laterally compressed. Breadth of cranial 
roof relatively narrow, with longitudinal dej)ression in ]x()sterior region ; supraoccijxital 
and ej)iotic feebly developed, but squamosal prominent ; cheek bones massive. 
Opercular apparatus and hyomandibular wxdl developed ; gape wide, but not extending 
below^ orbital region ; upper jaw' formed mainly by maxillae. Jaw's massive, w'ell 
equipped with multiserial, villiform teeth ; cleithrum w^ell developed. Centra of 
vertebrae com])letely ossified symmetrical cylinders, much deeper than long, marked 
with longitudinal striations between rims ; isospondyious. The external cranial 
bones are invested with ganoine. 
The fossil denotes a large fish of robust proportions, provided with jxow'erful 
fins (judging from the rudiment preserved of the pectoral). It w^as probably about 
.four feet in total length, and in life may have weighed from 70 to 80 lb. 
