90 
NATURAL HISTORY. (Fossils.) 
[north 
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 Cumming (presented by Sir Roderick Murchison); and of 
the latter, several species of Osteolepis, 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 P). 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. Gigas, and other species from the oolite 
and lias of England and Wurtemberg;—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 Wurtemberg; and the Pygopterus 
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 homocercals may be particularized a suite of spe¬ 
cies of Leptolepis, 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 Cololites (petrified intestines) has been given;—the specimens of 
the scarce Eugnathus speciosus and of Ptycholepis Bollensis, from the 
lias of Dorsetshire and Wurtemberg, &c. 
Among the Coelacanths (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 Clash- 
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 Asterolepis, and (on the top of the Case) casts of bones of 
the head of Asterolepis Asmusii , and of a related species, found ill 
the old red sandstone of Riga. Provisionally placed with the Coelacanths 
