III.—A Description of Ceramurus macrocephalus, A small Fossil Fish from the Purbeck Beds of Wiltshire

Extract

Since the publication of some notes on the English Purbeckian Fishes a few months ago, the writer has been favoured by the Rev. P. B. Brodie, M.A., F.G.S., with the opportunity of re-investigating and comparing the original specimen of the small problematical fish Ceramurus macrocephalus, briefly described by Egerton from the Purbeck Beds of the Vale of Wardour. Most of the early descriptions of fossil fishes are inadequate for present needs; and no genus and species could be less satisfactorily characterized than that just referred to. A new attempt to elucidate the fossil, in the light of modern knowledge, is thus very desirable, more especially as no other specimens of the same fish have hitherto been recognized.