XXVIII.—On the Distribution of Fossil Fish-remains in the Carboniferous Rocks of the Edinburgh District

Abstract

The district in which the city of Edinburgh is situated was one of the first in Britain from which fish-remains of Carboniferous age were collected. It is now sixty-seven years ago since Agassiz described the fossil fishes which were discovered by Lord Greenock at Wardie. Dr Hibbert at Burdiehouse, and Professor Jameson at Burntisland. The list given from this region in the “Tableau Générale” at the beginning of the Poissons Fossiles comprises twenty-nine names, of which eight were nomina nuda and are not now verifiable, the original specimens being lost; one, Diplodus minutus, was described, but insufficiently, and the original is also lost; six are synonyms of others in the list; leaving fourteen good species, of which one, Ptychacanthus sublævis, is a synonym of a Selachian spine (Tristychius arcuatus), described and figured from the Glasgow district.