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The defensive fin-bones of these creatures are not infrequent at Armagh and Bristol; those known as Oracanthus, Ctenocanthus, and Onchus are often of a very large size. Ganoid fish, such as Holoptychius, also occur; but these are far less numerous. The great Megalichthys Hibberti appears to range from the Upper Coal-measures to the lowest Carboniferous strata. Fusulina cylindrica, d'Orbigny.
Onchus tenuistriatus, Agassiz. Bone-bed. Upper Silurian. Shagreen-scales of a placoid fish, Thelodus parvidens, Agassiz. Plectrodus mirabilis, Agassiz.
Of the first of these, which in the Recent period comprise the shark, the dog-fish, and the ray, no entire skeletons are preserved, but fin-spines, called ichthyodorulites, and teeth occur. On such remains the genera Onchus, Odontacanthus, and Ctenodus, a supposed cestraciont, and some others, have been established. Polypterus. See Agassiz, "Recherces sur les Poissons Fossiles."
It has been suggested, however, that Onchus may be one of those Acanthodian fish referred by Agassiz to his Ganoid order, which are so characteristic of the base of the Old Red Sandstone in Forfarshire, although the species of the Old Red are all different from these of the Silurian beds now under consideration.
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