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om the Canadian Naturalist, Vol. VIII. No, (5.)

LOWER CARBONIFEROUS PISHES OF NEW

BRimSWtCK.

By Pri.vcipm- Dawson. LL.D., F.R.S.

The recent sinking of a shaft on the property of the Beliveau
Albertite and Oil Company on the Petitcodiac River, has exposed
a new and interesting deposit of fossil fishes in the rich bitumi-
nous shales of that district, which contain the remarkable deposits
of Albertite, described in my Acadian Geology, second edition,
p. 231 et seq. The bed affording these fossils is a dark brown
bituminous shale ; and I am informed by Mr. E. B. Chandler,
to whom I am indebted for an interesting collection of the fish
remains, was from four to five feet thick. The specimens thus
presented, with those previously in my collection, and one kindly
given to me by Mr. F. Adams, of this University, and the valu-
able memoirs recently published by Dr. Newberry in the Ohio
Reports, and by Dr. Traquair in the Journal of the Geological
Society, enable me now to give a revision of the fishes of this
locality, as described by Dr. Jackson in his Report of 1851 on
the Albert mine, which I was unable to do in the second edition
of Acadian Geology, owing to the .small number of specimens to
which at that time I had access.

In the collections in my possession, I recognize, in all, five
species, three of them very small, and two of larger size. Of
these, one, which is unusually well preserved and is the smallest
of the whole, appears to be new, and I shall begin by describing it.
PalaoniHcus (^Rhadinichthyi) Modulus, N. 8. — Length, five
to six centimetres ; greatest breadth, 15 to 17 millimetres — the
proportion of length to breadth being about five to one and a half.
Head, oval and obtuse ; details not preserved, except that the
bones are sculptured with fine waving lines. Body gracefully
curved, and upper lobe of tail long and slender. Pectoral fins
small, with stout, unjointed rays. Ventral not distincly preserved,
but apparently small and nearer to pectorals than to anal. Dorsal
and anal of moderate size and opposite each other. Caudal very
heterooeroal, with the lower lobe sharply pointed. Pins with
well developed fuloral spines, especially large at the base of
the caudal. Scales of the sides rhombic, coarsely toothed on the
posterior edges and elaborately sculptured with flat, scaly ridges,

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corresponding to the teeth of the edge. The ridges are arranged
in an upper and lower series, the latter oblique to the former, so
that each scale has the appearance of being composed of two
distinct portions. Lower surface of scales smooth, with a few
furrows corresponding to the ridges above, and tlie posterior
edges similarly serrate. Caudal scales narrowly rhombic,
pointed, and with a few central lines. The back is protected
with about ten large oval scales between the head and the dorsal.
They arc sculptured with waving lines, curving with the edges,
and are apparently truncate and serrate behind. The fish figured
by Jackson, PI. tl. Fig. 5, but not named, probably belongs to
the above species.

Fig. Palfeoniscus ilodulm, N. S.

(a) Outliue, natural size.

(//) Series of Scale.s enlarged, seen from inside. The lower row are

thope ou mesial line,
(c) Surface of exposed part of scale from side and upper lobe of

tail, showing sculpture, enlarged,
(rf) One of the dorsal scales, enlarged.

This beautiful and elaborately ornamented little fish is a per-
fect model in miniature of that type of lower carboniferous
Palifioniscids to which it belongs, and which has recently been
separated by Dr. Traquair in the genus or subgenus Rhadin-
icLthys. For this reason, I have given it the specific name
modulus. To the same genus belong the two next species,
described by Jackson, of which I shall give merely distinctive
marks.

P. Alberti, Jackson, is larger than the preceding. The scales
have more numerous striae. The dorsal scales are rounded pos-

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teriorly. The posterior edge of the anul fin ;ippro:iohos nearly
to the oaudiil, and extends considerably behind the posterior
edge of the dorsal.

P. Ualmsil., Jiiekson. — About the same size with the hist, but
more slender, and the head less obtuse in front. Scales think
and with few striae, and less numerous serrations. Dorsal scales
pointed posteriorly. Aual fin somewhat remote from caudal and
opposite dorsal.

A specimen collected by Mr. Ells, of the Geoloj^ieal Survey,
indicates a fish of the .same general form with P. Albcrti, but
about six inches long. The outline of this fish is well seen, but
the details arc not sufl&ciently clear to show if it differs in these
from the smaller species.

The next species and perhaps the following one, belong to
the genus Elonichthys of Giebel. They are much larger than the
preceding.

P. Broionii, Jackson, is deep in form, with large dorsal and
anal, the latter reaching almost to base of caudal. Scales of body
broad and with numerous fine horizontal striato-punctate fur-
rows, which turn abruptly upward at the anterior side of each
scale. A nearly perfect specimen, collected by Mr. Ells, shows
that the head was of moderate size, and the body about ten
inches long and three and a quarter inches wide, the breadth at
the dorsal fin being as great as at the shoulders, giving a sort of
rectangular form to the fish, whose breadth suddenly diminishes
toward the tail.

The crystalline lens of the eye of Mr. Ells's specimen is pre-
served in calcite. Tinder the microscope it shows concentric
laminae and coarse bands or rods with indistinct denticulations ;
the structure being similar to that in the crystalline lens of the
modern ganoid Amin oceUicnuda. This is the first instance
known to me of the preservation of the structure of the crystal-
line lens in a palaeozoic fish.

P. Jacksoni, N. .s. — A species figured, but not jdescribed, by
Jackson, is represented by many fragments in my collection. It
is the largest of these fishes, reaching a length of 15 inches.
It may be distinguished from the last by its more slender form,
its small anal fin, more remote from the caudal, and by the char-
acter of the scales, which have many horizontal striae, and have
in the broader ones a few deep and strong serrations posteriorly.

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Tlie wlioli' of these fishes liavc been preserved entire, the body
beinir jiurfectly fl:ittened and thrown into attitudes which imply
that they wore imbedded when living or immediately after death.
The material in whicli they are contained is shown, by its mi-
croscopical and chemical characters, to have been a vegetable
n)uok or mud, and the fish were either overwhelmed by it in the
manner of a bursting bog, or were stifled by the non oxygenated
water mixed with this mud, and suddenly killed i.nd imbedded
in the accumulating sediment. That they occur in this perfect
state and in a limited thickness of the deposit, may imply that
at certain times they were overwhelmed by the irruption of this
fetid organic mud into tlie water in which they lived. The bud
is low down in the Lower Carboniferous series, being the equivalent
of the Horton series of Nova Scotia ; so that these fi.'shes are
among the oldest that we know in the Carboniferous period ; but
we know, from the Horton beds, that many far larger and pre-
daceous ganoids were their contemporaries. No remains of these
have however as yet been found in the Albert or Beliveau beds,
which were probably depoi-ited in limited fresh-water basins, per-
haps not ordinarily :icce.ssible to the larger fishes.

Sir Philip Egertou* and Dr. Traquairf have both remarked
on the similarity of the.se fishes to those found in the Lower
Carboniferous of Scotland, and Dr. Newberry has described
very similar species from the Carboniferous of Illinois and Ohio.|

I I

* Journal of Geological Society, 1853,
t H: 1877.

t Kt'porton lilinoiN, Vol. II ; Falwontology of Ohio, Vol. 1.

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ire, the body
which imply
)r after death,
n, by its mi-
a vegetable
by it in the
1 oxygenated
id imbedded
this perfect
y imply that
ption of thi.s
1. The bed
le equivalent
ie fishes are
period ; but
Ljer and pre-
lins of these
liveau beds,
basins, per-

;h remarked
the Lower

s described
and Ohio.J

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