The Fossil Fishes of the Talbragar Beds (Jurassic) (Volume 9) (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: III.-CONCLUSION. The number of genera and species represented in the Talbragar fossil fish fauna is thus comparatively small, the following being a complete list of the forms determined :? Crossopterygii. CffiLACANTHIDJE. Genus noil del. ACTINOPTERYGII. PAL2EONISCIDJE. CoCCOlepiS, Agatsiz. australis, p. ov. SEMIONOTIDE. Aphnelepis, gen. no. australis,/. toe. P- Aetheolepis, gen. Hoc. mirabilis, p- o. PHOLIDOPHOE.ID.ffi:. Archaeoniffine, gf. no. tenuis, p- . robustus, p- o. LEPTOLEPIDJE. LeptOlepis, Agatii:. talbragarensis, j. woe. Lowei, /. nov. gregarius, p. nor. Of these fishes, the Coelacanth genus and Coccolcpis may be at once dismissed as of no stratigraphical value. The three new genera and Lcptolepis, however, admit of more satisfactory discussion. As already remarked, the only known ichthyolites closely resembling Aphnclepis are some detached scales from the uppermost Muschelkalk of Germany, the Lettenkolile, which may or may not belong to a similar fish. It is, however, evident that Aphnelepis differs from Semionotus in no essential characters, except those of the squamation; and as it is now generally admitted that thin, deeply imbricating scales result from the evolution of rhombic ganoid scales, it may be inferred that the Talbragar genus is more specialised than the familiar Semionotus. Now, the latter fish is notcertainly known to range above the Rhffitic formation; at any rate, the typical forms all occur between the Bunter and the Rhaetic. Presumably, therefore, Aphnelepis does not represent an earlier period than the Liassic. "With regard to the remarkable genus, Aelheolepis, it can only be considered as a similarly specialised ally of Dapeditts. The Dapedioid fishes are almost exclusively...