The material on which the above determination is based was collected in 1878 by Sir J. W. Dawson in the coal formation at the South Joggins, Nova Scotia. Nothing has been collected since that date that would give additional information as to the nature of the form represented. I give here Dawson's description of the remains:
Fig. 15a. Type material of Sparodus, consisting of a, a tooth (× 25); b, four of the smaller teeth (in maxilla?) (× 25); c, three bony scales (× 5); d, fragment of a limb bone (× 2); e, a vertebra (× 2). (After Dawson.)
"In the coaly matter or mineral charcoal at the base of tree No. 10 appeared a few fragments of an animal which may possibly belong to the above-named genus of Fritsch, though I am by no means certain of this identification or of the real nature of the animal.
"The skull is represented by a fragment of a maxillary or intermaxillary bone, with blunt conical teeth. It is smooth or marked merely with microscopic dots. There is also a fragment which may be a palatal bone studded with minute teeth.
"A few vertebræ associated with the above bones are long and narrow, with large zygapophyses and long neural spines. Length of body (i.e., of the vertebra) about 3 millimeters.
"With these remains are a few bony scales different from those of any other species found in these trees, and more resembling scales of Ganoid Fishes. They are somewhat rectangular in form, enameled on the surface and beautifully sculptured with waving lines.
"In the same trunk were found some teeth and bones referable to Hylerpeton dawsoni, and it is not impossible that the remains above referred to may have belonged to some creature devoured by that animal, and which would not otherwise have obtained admission to the interior of an erect tree. The tree itself had been removed by the sea, all but a little of the base, and this was in a very unsatisfactory state, so that doubt might even exist as to the limit between the deposit in the interior of the tree and that under its base."