64 
THE UPPER KEUPER AT SHREWLEY. 
the upper surface of which is ripple-marked; above this there is a 
thin bed of coarse, friable sandstone, the grains of which are 
loosely cemented together. This sandstone contains a quantity of 
small white particles. This bed also contains teeth and spines of 
fish ; and the Rev. P. B. Brodie has lately discovered a new.species 
of fish in this bed, namely Semionotus Brodiei. 
On visiting the quarry, in the spring of last year (1892), with 
Mr. Brodie, we discovered in the fine conglomerate before alluded 
to, a fragment of an Iclithyodorulite. We then traced the bed until 
it attained a thickness of 4in., which is its greatest thickness. 
In it we found a large quantity of palatal teeth of Lophodus 
Keuperianus , and in a space of less than a yard we discovered four 
large dorsal spines of a Cestraciont fish. Owing to the difficulty 
of extracting them we could not obtain any perfect specimens, but 
we were successful in securing several fragments. We obtained 
also a small piece of shagreen, a ganoid scale, and a piece of 
Labyrinthodon bone, probably part of the cranium. There are 
many fragments of bone in this bed which may belong to fish, but 
which are too small for identification. Until quite lately it was not 
known that the Cestraciont remains occurred so low down in the 
section, as they were only known to occur in the bed of friable sand¬ 
stone 27ft. higher up. This discovery is therefore interesting from 
the fact that the remains of Cestracionts have been proved at a lower 
level, and in much greater number. This bed contains so many 
fragments of bone, teeth, &c., that Mr. Brodie is inclined to term it 
a “ bone bed.” It rapidly thins out on all sides, but has been 
traced along the section for a length of 300ft. The total height of 
the section is 32ft. Mr. Brodie has also discovered many footprints 
of Labyrinthodonts and of Rhynchosciurus. From this quarry, and 
from one in the Lower Keuper at Coten End, Warwick, the finest 
collection of Triassic fossils in the kingdom has been obtained in 
former years. 
Note.— The dorsal spines of Cestracionts were long thought by 
naturalists to be the jaws of some animal, but Professor Agassiz 
proved them to be bony spines on the fin like those of the living 
Cestracionts. The spines were simply imbedded in the flesh, and 
were attached to it by strong muscles. 
March, 1898. 
