Abstract
IN the course of my work upon the carboniferous rocks of the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, I have succeeded in obtaining several specimens which throw some additional light upon the little known Selachians of the Palæzoic age. It was considered a great step in advance when Prof. Kner, in Germany, and Sir P. Egerton in England, proved that the spine of the tooth known as Diplodus, which occurs frequently in Carboniferous rocks, was the equally well-known Pleuracanthus, a geuns of not infrequent occurrence in the same beds. A very interesting slab from the ironstone of Burghdee, near Edinburgh, in the Carboniferous Limestone series, advances our knowledge another important stage. Upon it there are several teeth of the species Diplodus parvulus, Traq., associated with cranial cartilage, and a spine which is certainly not Pleuracanthus, but is totally unlike it, and one which does not appear to have been ever described. Upon showing it to my friend, Dr. Traquair, he said it confirmed an opinion at which he had long since arrived, that the Diplodus tooth would be found common to several genera of Selachian fishes. It certainly was a singular fact, and one which must have struck those pabæontologists who have most carefully examined the fish-faunas of particular beds and horizons, that the number of the species of spines usually exceed those of teeth. Another important conclusion may be drawn from this discovery, viz, that spines are of very little value in relation to the affinities of sharks. Nothing can be more different than the spine of Pleuracanthus and that of Diplodus parvulus, Traq.
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STOCK, T. NOTICE OF SOME DISCOVERIES RECENTLY MADE IN CARBONIFEROUS VERTEBRATE PALÆONTOLOGY . Nature 27, 22 (1882). https://doi.org/10.1038/027022a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/027022a0