512 
DE. A. GUNTHER’S DESCRIPTION OF CERATODUS. 
Mr. Krefft’s specimen was evidently only roughly preserved, and the internal organs 
had been removed. 
Another specimen, acquired hy the Sydney Museum some months after, was forwarded 
to me, through the great liberality of the Trustees of that Institution, for the purpose of 
a more detailed examination. It reached me towards the end of August last, and 
proved to be a fine example, 38 inches in length, unfortunately without any of the soft 
internal organs, but with the external and skeletal parts nearly perfect. From this spe- 
cimen, which I have deposited in the British Museum, the subsequent descriptions of 
the skeleton, scales, and fins are taken. 
Professor Oaven received a third (male) specimen from Professor A. M. Thomson, of 
Sydney, in the month of November ; he very kindly handed it over to me ; and it proved 
to be of the greatest value, as it was not only but little inferior in size to the one pre- 
viously received (32 inches), but also had the soft organs in a good state of preservation. 
Finally, by the same mail, and apparently from the same source, the Secretary of the 
Zoological Society received a fourth example, smaller than the preceding (26 inches), 
but of great interest, because by it I was enabled to ascertain the structure of the female 
organs in an immature condition. As it is destined for the collection of the Royal 
College of Surgeons, I availed myself of the permission to dissect it only so far as to 
elucidate some points which could not be satisfactorily made out from the preceding 
specimens*. 
Mr. Krefft was certainly most fortunate in assigning, from the beginning, to this 
fish its proper place in the system, by describing it as “ allied to Lepidosiren ,” and 
referring it to Ceratodus. Indeed the principal reason which appears to have induced 
him to state in so definite a manner an affinity to Lepidosiren, was his having been 
informed that this fish was in the habit of living temporarily on land ; but the affinity 
extends much further, and consists in a nearly perfect identity of the skeleton, in the 
coexistence of a lung with gills, in a great resemblance of the intestinal tract, and also 
of the dentition — a resemblance recognized by Professor OwENf at a time when Ceratodus 
was still considered to be a Shark, but denied by Mr. Krefft £. 
The genus Ceratodus was established by Professor Agassiz § for teeth which are found 
in strata of Jurassic and Triassic formations in various parts of Europe. Professor 
Oldham, F.R.S., has described teeth which were found in India, at Maledi, south of 
Nagpur ||, and differ scarcely from Muschelkalk examples; the stratum from which the 
* Whilst this paper was passing through the press, the Trustees of the British Museum received from those 
of the Sydney Museum three other examples in a perfect state of preservation. One proved to he a female with 
fully developed sexual organs, a description of which will he added hereafter. 
t Trans. Linn. Soc. 1839, vol. xviii. p. 331. “These teeth, in their paucity, relative size, and mode of 
fixation to the maxillse, resemble those of the Chimcera, and some of the extinct cartilaginous fishes, as Coch- 
lioclus and Ceratodus 
J “This newly found amphibian has a dentition different from that of Lepidosiren.'” — Proc. Zool. Soc. 1870, 
p. 221. 
§ Rechereh. Poiss. Foss. vol. iii. p. 129. 
|] Geological Survey of India, p. 295. 
