On Some Karroo Fishes from East Africa

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Abstract
From Mr. G. M. Stockley I have received a small collection of fish remains. Most of the specimens are incomplete, but the following notes will indicate the nature of the fauna, of which further collections will undoubtedly increase our knowledge. The genus Australosomus was founded by Piveteau ( C.R. Acad. Sci., Paris, cxci , pp. 456–8) on specimens from Madagascar which had been identified by Priem as Pristisomus merlei . Piveteau pointed out that the characters of the fish in question must cause it to be removed from Pristisomus, and he made the new genus the type of a new family which, in his opinion, possessed features of both the Palæoniscidæ and Saurichthyidae. In view of the fact that the genus is being further investigated by Dr. E. I. White, it is proposed here merely to draw attention to the occurrence of members of the same genus in the Karroo of Tanganyika. The specimens under consideration were collected by Mr. Stockley at Vikindu, about 15 miles west of Pangani Rapids, near the Rufiji-Ruaha confluence. They are preserved in a calcareous shale, and most are weathered and fragmentary. Two of them, however, are nearly complete, and the chief features can be ascertained from these and from some of the fragments. The complete fish was from about 100 to 105 mm. long, the head and shoulder-girdle together occupying about one-sixth of the total length. The maximum depth of the body is about 17·5 mm., so that the fish is more slender in build than A. merlei .

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