Fig. 125—Cleithrolepis granulatus, Egerton.
Triassic (Hawkesbury Series). Gosford, New South Wales. 3/4 nat. size.
(After Smith Woodward.)
Lower Mesozoic Fishes.—
From the Lower Mesozoic sandstone (?Triassic) of Tasmania, two species of Acrolepis have been described, viz., A. hamiltoni and A. tasmanicus. The former occurs in the thick bed of sandstone, of nearly 1,000 feet, at Knocklofty; the latter species in the sandstone with Vertebraria conformably overlying the Carbopermian at Tinderbox Bay.
Fig. 126—REMAINS of JURASSIC and OTHER VERTEBRATES.
1—Ceratodus avus, A. S. Woodw. Left splenial with lower tooth. Cape Paterson, Victoria. About 1/3 nat. size
2—Ceratodus forsteri, Krefft. Left lower tooth. Living. Queensland. About 1/3 nat. size
3—Phalangeal of Carnivorous Dinosaur. Cape Paterson. About 1/3 nat. size
4—Phalangeal of Megalosaurian. Wealden, Sussex, England. 1/4 nat. size
Jurassic Fishes.—
The Jurassic beds of Victoria contain three genera. Psilichthys selwyni, a doubtful palaeoniscid was described from Carapook, Co. Dundas; whilst Leptolepis, a genus found in the Trias of New South Wales and the Lias and Oolite of Europe, is represented by L. crassicauda from Casterton, associated with the typical Jurassic fern, Taeniopteris. In the Jurassic beds of South Gippsland, at Cape Paterson, an interesting splenial tooth of the mudfish, Ceratodus, was found, named C. avus ([Fig. 126]). Since then, in a bore-core from Kirrak near the same place a fish scale was discovered ([Fig. 127]) which, by its shape, size and structure seems to differ in no way from the living lung-fish of Queensland ([Fig. 128]). It is reasonable to infer that tooth and scale belong to the same species; and in view of the close relationship of the tooth with that of the living mudfish, rather than with that of the Ceratodus found fossil in the Mesozoic of Europe, it may be referred to Neoceratodus, in which genus the living species is now placed.