NATURAL HISTORY. (Fossils.) 
73 
GALLERY.] 
Among the Acanthodians and Dipterians (Cases 4 and 5, upper 
shelves), both confined to the old red sandstone and carboniferous 
formation, may be pointed out: of the former family, the specimens of 
the fine species Cheirolepis called Cummingice, after the late Lady 
Gordon Gumming (presented by §ir Roderick Murchison); and of 
the latter, several species of Osfeolepis , chiefly from Cromarty. 
Of the family of Lepidoids (Cases 1 to 6), divided into genera 
having invertebrated tails (homocerci) and those in which the vertebral 
column is prolongated into the upper lobe of the tail (heterocerci): 
among the former are a suite of specimens of various species of Tetra - 
gonolepis of the lias, especially from Lyme Regis, such as T. speciosus , 
conjiuens , pustulatus , Leachii; those of Dapedius , especially of D. 
politus; the several varieties of D. Colei from the same locality, and 
of D. Orbis from Barrow, the best specimens of which were presented 
by the late Countess of Aylesford; the fine group of Semionotus 
Bergeri in lias, from the neighbourhood of Coburg; specimens of 
various species of Lepidotus , some of them gigantic, particularly 
the original specimens, figured by Agassiz, of L. Mantellii and L . 
Fittoni , from the Wealden of Sussex: the latter presented by 
P. J. Martin, Esq. ; L. Gigns , and other species from the oolite 
and lias of England and Wiirtemberg;—and, among those of the 
second division, the suite of species of Palceoniscus, chiefly from 
the Zechstein and magnesian limestone of Thuringia and England, 
the new red sandstone of Bohemia, &c. 
Among the most prominent species belonging to the different genera 
of the Sauroids (Cases 7 to, 10), a family of which the remains occur 
both in the oldest and in recent formations, are those of Megalichthys , 
especially M. Hibberti , of which yet imperfectly understood fish some 
very instructive fragments are deposited, especially as illustrative 
of the nature of its teeth, formerly mistaken for those of Saurian rep¬ 
tiles ; also the several large species, not all equally well determined, of 
Sauropsis , chiefly from the lias of Wiirtemberg; and the Pygopierus 
Humboldtii , the largest species of which is from the copper-slate of 
Mansfeld: these genera belong to the heterocercal division of the 
family. Among the homocereals may be particularized a suite of spe¬ 
cies of Leplolepis, all of them from the beds of the oolitic limestone 
formation, and to some of which, in the lithographic stone of Sohlen- 
hofen, belong the vermicular bodies and impressions found in the same 
locality, and to which, though they appear to be Coprolites, the name 
of Colulit.es (petrified intestines) has been given ;—the specimens of 
the scarce Eugnathus speciosus and of Ptycholepis Bollensis, from the 
lias of Dorsetshire and Wiirtemberg, &c. 
Among the Ccelacanths (Cases 11 to 13) maybe pointed out, as 
more particularly interesting, one or two of the species from the De¬ 
vonian system of Scotland and Russia; the instructive specimen of 
Holoptychius nobilissimus discovered in the old red sandstone of Clas’n- 
binnie, near Perth, by the Rev. James Noble ; the specimens of Glyp- 
tolepis leptopterus from Lethenbar; specimens of a few of the smaller 
species of Asteroiepis, and (on the top of the Case) casts of bones of 
the head of Asteroiepis Asmusii , and of a related species, found in 
the old red sandstone of Riga. Provisionally placed with the Coelacanihs 
