Page:VCH Staffordshire 1.djvu/67

 PALAEONTOLOGY takes the form of a slab of Keuper Sandstone obtained by Mr. J. N. B. Masefield from the Hollington quarries, displaying in great perfection the impression of the peculiar system of abdominal ribs characteristic of these reptiles. The specimen has been described and figured by Dr. Smith Woodward, 10 and referred to the genus Hyperodapedon, an ally of Rhynchosaurus, of which other remains are known from the Keuper of Warwick and Devonshire. Passing on to the vertebrate fauna of the Coal Measures of the county, we have first to refer to the occurrence in this formation of remains of primeval salamanders, some of which belong to true laby- rinthodonts, while others are referable to allied sections of the group now collectively known as Stegocephalia. These are recorded by Mr. John Ward in two papers, the first of which was contributed to the Transactions of the N. Staffordshire Institute of Mining Engineers for 1890," and the second to the Transactions of the N. Staffordshire Field Club for i goo. 12 First in the list comes the fully-armoured species described by Professor Huxley on the evidence of a Yorkshire specimen under the name of Pholiderpeton scutiferum, of which genus it is the type. The species was recorded from the Coal Measures of Fenton by Mr. Ward in i875- 13 Many years ago (1844) Mr. Garner in his Natural History of the County of Stafford figured, as that of some kind of unknown fish, a tooth from Skelton Colliery, which now turns out to belong to the labyrinthodont known as Loxomma allmanni. This large species, of which a practically entire and uncrushed skull is known, is characterized by the large size and diamond-shape of the sockets of the eyes and by the lancet-like teeth ; and a fine series of its remains has been discovered in the county. They occur, for instance, in the shale overlying the Cockshead Ironstone at Adderley Green ; in shale above the Knowles and Chalky Mine Ironstones at Fenton and Longton ; in the Brown Mine Ironstone at Silverdale ; and in the Gubbin Ironstone at Skelton. Of the still larger Coal Measure labyrinthodont described by Huxley as Anthracosaurus russelli^ a number of well-preserved, although fragmentary, remains have been obtained from the Rag Mine Ironstone at Fenton and the Ash Ironstone at Longton. By far the most interesting of the Staffordshire stegocephalians is, however, Ceraterpeton gafaani, a member of the group Microsauria, measuring about ten inches in total length, and typically from Jarrow Colliery, Kilkenny. A single skeleton has been obtained from the shale overlying the Ash Ironstone at Longton Hall Colliery, Longton, which has been described by Dr. C. W. Andrews. 1 * At one time it was incorrectly identified with the allied genus Urocordylus. The genus Ceraterpeton takes its name from the long horn-like projections arising from the hind border of the skull. In addition to the forms above-mentioned, remains of other stego- cephalians are known from the Coal Measures of the county, some of 10 Tram. N. Staff. Field Club, xxxix, 115, pi. iii (1905). " Vol. x. " Vol. xxxiv, 101. " Trans. N. Staff. FieU Club (1875), p. ^^. " Geol. Mag. (4), ii, 83 (1895). 35