XXXI.—The Permian Fish Dorypterus.

Abstract

Though first described so long ago as 1842, the remarkable fossil fish named by Germar Dorypterus hoffmanni has never become well known among palæontologists. This fact, due no doubt to its extreme rarity, is exemplified in the figures of the fish which appear from time to time in text-books: there is a decided tendency for the more recent figures to show less resemblance to Dorypterus than the earlier ones. The present paper is an attempt to make the structure of this interesting fish better known. It gives the results of a study of the four known English specimens, and, as far as possible, it embodies these results in a new restoration which, it is hoped, will help towards making future illustrations of Dorypterus rather less misleading than those now current.